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™E DEVIL'* 
MEXICO 




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G. L. MORRIL 



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The Complete Music Store ^ 



Sole Repieientative 

Steinvray 

Irers & Pond 

Ludwig 

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Pianos 

E*cb b its gr«de 
absolutely Aandud 

Genuine 

Pianola Players 

Pianos 

The Famous 

Duo Art 

Self-PUyer 

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Thtt Busical marrel of 
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Pianos for Rent 

For any and all oc- 

canoni. by the day 

wcdc or month 

Pianos Tuned 

By trained men whose 
sole work is to intelli- 
gently perfonn this duty 

Pianos Repaired 

Our own workmen, in 

charge of a piano ex> 

pert, will take care of 

your repairs. 





Real Service m 

Victor Records 

A complete fiock aU 
ways. Inquire about our 
new "approval" plan, 
which gives you the 
privilege of trying before 
bujring. 

Victrolas 

Ranging in price from 
$15 to $300 mall fin- 
ishes. Convenient pay- 
ments may be ananged. 

Music 

Popular Song Hits^ 
Patriotic Band Marches, 
Arias from the Operas, 
Sacred Music and 
Songs, Inftrumental Se- 
ledions. Lively Dance 
Music, etc.. Our enor- 
mous Aock makes it a 
pradical certainty you 
can find here the piece 
you want. Try! 

Player Piano 
Music Rolls 

Our 8ele<ftion is very 
complete and we receive 
all the new rolls as fait 
as they are published. 
Call in and we will 
play some over for you 



METROPOUTAN MUSIC CO. 

THE COMPLETE MUSIC STORE 

^V 41-43 So. Sixth St, Minneapolis, Minn. /^ 




A BUZZARD'S BANQUET 
MEXICO 




G. L. MORRILL 



THE DEVIL 
IN MEXICO 



BY 

G. L. MORRILL 

("GOUGHTLY") 

PASTOK OF PEOPLE'S CHURCH, 
Minneapolis, Minn., U. S. A. 



LOWELL L. MORRILL 

PHOTOGRAPHER 






Copyright, 1917, by 
G. L. MORRILL 



/ 

NOV 19 1917 
©CI.A49435V 



h^ 




'^-^ ( 



Dedicated 
To 

My Son 

Lowell L^ Morrill 



BOOKS BY G. L. MORRILL 

ROTTEN REPUBLICS— CENTRAL AMERICA 

TO HELL AND BACK— SOUTH AMERICA 

GOLIGHTLY 'ROUND THE GLOBE 

TRACKS OF A TENDERFOOT 

SOUTH SEA SILHOUETTES 

PARSON'S PILGRIMAGE 

A MUSICAL MINISTER 

FIRESIDE FANCIES 

HERE AND THERE 

PEOPLE'S PULPIT 

EASTER ECHOES 

THE MORALIST 

UPPER CUTS 

DRIFTWOOD 

MUSINGS 



The Devil in Mexico 

Go to the Devil, gentle reader, if you want to know Mexico, 
for he has made it his favorite resort. There is sulphur and 
smoke in volcanoes; heat in climate and food; torment in 
cactus plant and insect life; fire in the eyes of the seiioritas; 
hell-hate in the hearts of the rulers and despair in the souls 
of the peons. From the beginning the Devil has been Mexi- 
co's mental, moral and military hero and today he is the real 
patron saint of the people. Viva Diablo ! 

— GOLIGHTLY 



Foreword 



Mexico is one-sixteenth of an inch nearer hell than any country 
I have ever visited in my round-the-world travels. 

"M" in Mexico means miu*der and misrule. Her flag — green, 
white and red — stands for jealousy, cowardice and butchery. The 
national bird should be a buzzard, the coat of arms a skull and 
cross-bones, and her national hymn, "Caramba, Damn the Gringo!" 

Mexico is a land of dirt, disease, destitution, dishonesty, dilapi- 
dation, darkness, despots, delay, debt, deviltry and degeneracy. 
God has blessed it as one of the wealthiest and most beautiful 
countries in the world, and man has cursed it. The country has 
gone back to the days before Porfirio Diaz. 

Mexico has mines of untold wealth, but she is bankrupt; oil, 
but gross mental darkness; lovely climate, but no spiritual atmos- 
phere; forests of every valuable tree but the tree of knowledge. 
Her bloom and charm are gone — so are most of the best Americans. 
This garden of Eden has become a back-yard ash-heap. 

The cities are dens of thieves from the highest official to the 
lowest office boy. The government chokes the people ^vith one hand 
and picks their pocket with the other. From the Rio Grande to 
Guatemala, Mexico is a Jericho highway of robbery. Many cities 
are rubbish heaps of huddling, starving, pest-stricken paupers and 
desperate thieves — ^mere homes of vermin and vice. 

Mexico is the white man's burden — ^a burden of famine, fever, 
poverty, ignorance, bankruptcy, war and superstition. "When the 
Canaanites w^ere dying of corruption and contaminating the sur- 
rounding nations, God commanded Israel to destroy them. This 
Bible incident may be Uncle Sam's authority for trjing to preserve 
the better part of Mexico for hei'self, as well as to protect his own 
borders. 

We were our brother's keeper in the Philippines and Cuba, and 
our responsibility includes intervention in Mexico whenever it may 
be necessaiy. This Tropic of Cancer country is a tropical cancer, 
and it may be that the only cure is Uncle Sam's sword. 

— G. L. MORRILL 



CONTENTS 



Page 

Florida 1 

Palm Beach Nuts 3 

A Bunch of Keys 7 

Sponges 8 

In the Soup 9 

Key Westers 10 

Havana's Satanic Sabbath... 12 

Insurrection — Cuba's Pastime IS 
Mantazas Hermitage and 

Caves 17 

Ship Sports 19 

"Custom"ary Thieves 21 

Whiskey in Church 23 

Unprogressive Progreso .... 24 

Yucatan Chewing Gum 25 

A Merida Market 26 

A Despot 27 

Underground Rivers 28 

A Tame Dance 29 

Cheer Up! 30 

Merry Meridans 32 

"Feast of Blisters" 34 

Strung Up 35 

Around Town 36 

Wild Women 37 

Sweet 38 

Working Miracles 39 

Church in the Lurch 39 

Died Game 41 

Street Life 45 

A Slow Start 47 

Night in a Benighted Village 48 

The Road to Ruin 51 

Attacked by Ticks 54 

A Pyramid Climb 55 

"House of the Nuns" 57 

Uxmal's Governor 58 

Ruin Ruminations 60 

On a Yucatan Train 63 

Campeche 65 

A Vile Inn...^ 66 

Firecracker Fiends 67 

Masqueraders 70 

Caricatured Clergy 70 

Confetti 71 

Native Dances 72 

Carnival Curse 74 



Page 

The State of Campeche 11 

A Fishing Village 79 

Plague Passports 80 

Throwing the Bull 81 

A Sisal Hacienda 83 

A "Peon" of Joy 85 

Yucatecan Traits 86 

Henequen History 88 

King Sisal 91 

Almighty Alvarado 94' 

Adios, Yucatan 100 

A Vera Cruz Holdup 102 

Wharf Rats 104 

Professional Pilferers 105 

Night Life ...106 

In a "Norther".... 109 

Derelicts 113 

Disease and Depravity 116 

Train "Despatchers" 119 

Viva Juarez ! 121 

Afloat Again 123 

Oil Factories and Olfacto- 
ries 124 

Red-Tape 126 

Tampico Tramps 127 

An Infernal Shame 129 

Treaty and Entreaty 130 

A De"Lind"quent Diplomut.134 

Dub Diplomacy ■• . . . 135 

Pershing and Politics.. 138 

Died in Vain 138 

"Plaza de Prostitution" 141 

Watchful Waiting 142 

Burned by Bandits 145 

Between Stations 146 

Kaiseristas in Mexico 147 

A Silver Smelter 149 

Montere - Landmarks 150 

Hats 152 

A Dirty Depot 154 

Cattle Cars 155 

Saltillo 157 

Desert Stations 158 

Hanged! 159 

Hellish Atrocities 161 

"Mucho Disgusto" 163 

San Luis Potosi 164 



CONTENTS—Continued. 



Page 
Robbed 165 

On the Anxious Seat 165 

Queretaro and the Constitu- 
tion 166 

Martyr Blood 169 

The American Club 170 

A Farcical Election 171 

Carranza the Criminal 173 

A Malodorous Market 175 

The "Imposing" Cathedral. .176 

Ruined Zocala 179 

Pickpockets and Thieves' 

Market 179 

Government Finance 181 

Palace Bloodshed 182 

Lovely Alameda 184 

Joy Rides 184 

Brutal Bullfights 187 

World's Best Boulevard 191 

Serenading a Poet 192 

Wanted — A Newspaper 193 

Grasshopper-Hill 197 

Godless, Grafting Guadalupe. 200 

A Fairy Story 202 

Holy Steps 205 

Sacred Sewer Water 206 

Inquisition Infamies 208 

Coffin Nails 210 

Iturbide and His Hotel 211 

Cockfight Gambling 212 

A Perfumed Paradise 213 

Floating Truck Gardens 214 

Venice Out"ranked" 215 

Xochtmilcans 216 

Zapatistas 217 

Fly and Dirt Eaters 217 

Pernicious Pulque 219 

Prohibition 222 

Jailed 224 

"Popo" and "Itza" 226 

Hermits and Harlots 227 

A Cold Reception 228 

Theatres 230 

Red Lights 231 

Hotel Hells ....233 

Disorganized 235 

Sun and Moon Pyramids 235 

"Road of the Dead" 237 



Page 

A Subterranean 'Town 239 

Dig Up! 240 

A War God 241 

A Stone Calendar 242 

Picture-Writing 243 

A Butcher Block 244 

Cruelty and Cannibalism. .. .244 

Aztec Laws and Go Is 247 

Crocodile Tears 249 

Good Americans 250 

Art and Artisan.. ..250 

Beggars 251 

A Gold Train 252 

Angel Architects 254 

Pav and Pray 256 

Puebla 257 

Ancient Cholula 259 

Cortez, the Devil Crusader. .261 

Choked to Death ...269 

Good and Bad 269 

The Star Mountain 271 

The Valley and Shadow of 

Death 272 

Orizaba 273 

Fleas, Feathers, Flashlights. 275 

Seeing Things .276 

A Nervous Ride 278 

Tales of Travelers 280 

A Brush with Bandits 280 

Saved 282 

Some Letters 284 

The Revolution Habit 287 

Mexican Beatitudes 289 

"Damn the Gringo" 289 

Why Not? 291 

Muzzled 292 

Morrillisms on Mexico 294 

Mexico 328 

Hell in Mexico 331 

My Mexican Alphabet 334 

A "Fast" Boat 335 

Manicures 336 

Stopovers 338 

Patriotism 339 

War 340 

Liberty 342 

Old Glory 343 



igpHitHii«ii«H«Ti5iRiraigiiaiRraiaCTgii5iia(«ii^ 



List of Illustrations 



m 



A BUZZARD'S BANQUET Frontispiece 

■ G. L. MOREILL 

' INSURRECTOS ARRESTED, HAVANA, CUBA 

mOME, SWEET HOME IN YUCATAN 

MAYAN RUINS, UXMAL, YUCATAN 

' SHOT ON SUSPICION, YUCATAN 

CLERGY CARICATURED IN CARNIVAL, 
CAMPECHE, MEXICO 

^ PASSENGER TRAIN BURNED BY BANDITS, 
NEAR VICTORIA, MEXICO 

^ "BEGGARS DESCRIPTION," VANEGAS, 
MEXICO 

A BREAD-WINNER, MEXICO 

^ A MEXICAN LANDSCAPE, CHARCAS, MEX- 
ICO 

-» REFINED PLEASURE, BULLRING, MEXICO 
CITY 

AN AZETC TRINITY, MEXICO 

DEPARTED WORTH, PLAZA, MEXICO CITY 

^ SOLDIER-GUARDED TRAIN, ESPERANZA, 
MEXICO 

-TOWN DESTROYED BY BANDITS, NEAR 
CORDOVA, MEXICO 



Eai0MS^QPISiSISIBSIQIffllHIQIE3la!BlaiBiaiSIBlSialQS!S!Q|Q|Q|ElaiEaiQIQ!E3lEalQIEIQ 




THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 



FLORIDA 

HE United States government refused to give me a 
passport for travel in Mexico, or letters of introduc- 
tion to American representatives there. Since I was 
a good American citizen, and not a criminal fleeing 
from justice, I went just the same. After making my will and 
kissing my wife good-bye, I started off with a bandana <hand- 
kerchief as a flag for protection, armed with a safety razor, 
gun-metal watch, box of insect powder, a cake of soap and 
the Bible. 

Minneapolis was snow-bound, only one train pulled out for 
Chicago, I was on it and got there with it late next morning. 
From Chicago to Jacksonville the Dixie Flyer was slow as a 
fly in molasses, but gave me plenty of time to look out on my 
old Kentucky home, with its fair women, fast horses and fine 
whiskey; Tennessee, with Lookout Mountain, historic battle- 
field and cemetery ; dear old Georgia, where an untimely frost 
had made food and vegetables more dear than ever; and 
Florida, the land of flowers, fruits, "crackers," moss, swamps, 
alligators, land-speculators, invalids and tourists. 

Ponce de Leon was the first tourist who came to Florida. 
He landed in 1512 and tourists have been "landed" on ever 
since. It was at Easter, a little late in the season, yet he was 
early enough to grab a few acres of real estate. He was lured 
by a fake ad of a "fountain of youth," "elixir of life" and 
"magical spring." He was disappointed and didn't find what 
he expected, like many who go there now and tan and fatten 
while their pocketbooks grow thin, sickly and waste away. 

The day Ponce landed he planted a Spanish cross of stone, 
but thank God it has not grown very well on American soil! 



2 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

He saw the mainland on Easter Sunday, but it is far from 
being a pious peninsula now. The day was *'Pascha Flor- 
idum," feast of flowers, and he called the land "Florida." 
Did his ship movie man, photographer or cartoonist make a pic- 
ture of him landing? If so, I'm positive the negative has been 
lost. Later he came to a place, now St. Augustine, and slept 
out of doors. Were he to visit it now he could stay in a 
hotel with his name on the front door. 

Spain made Ponce governor of Florida and gave him power 
to colonize it. He started the first Florida Land Colony Co. 
which failed like many others since. The native Seminoles 
were not as anxious then to receive tourists as the Floridians 
are now, and they made him a target for a poisoned arrow 
from the effects of which he died. However, his name lives, 
not only in history, but in the big hotel at St. Augustine, and 
his name and fame have been carried all over the world by 
travellers who have stolen this hotel's silver spoons and linen 
napkins bearing his monogram. 

Iri St. Augustine I remembered some interesting history. 
The Huguenots were so persecuted in France that Admiral de 
Coligny sailed to Florida to find a haven of refuge. He 
founded a colony near St. Augustine. Then appeared on the 
scene a perfect gentleman — the mild-mannered Mendez — as 
perfect a Spaniard as ever burned a native or cut his throat. 
He politely massacred the whole colony. He came with orders 
to "gibbet and behead all Protestants in these regions." 
French animation was suspended by the neck, and this Christ- 
like inscription was tagged to each hanged body, "Not as 
Frenchmen but as heretics." 

St. Augustine is the Methuselah of American cities, dating 
from 1565. There is no doubt of its antiquity. I knew it was 
the oldest city from a visit to one of the restaurants. The 
bread was hard as the famous gateposts, the butter strong as 
Fort Marion, the eggs old as the cannon balls, and the meat 
as fresh as the sulphur fountain. 

St. Augustine is advertised as a famous "winter resort," 
and I found it so, for every one was wearing furs or over- 
coats. Jack Frost had just held a Florida carnival which 
had cost millions of dollars in frozen oranges, pineapples, etc. 
Added to all this sorrow was the grief of a policeman who 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 3 

told me the town was dead ; that there were only seven police- 
men, and no public gambling or drinking; that the red light 
district had been driven way out beyond the city limits, and 
tourists now had few attractions. He hoped for a better 

season next year because Rev. , who had organized 

all this reform, had received a letter advising him to buy a 
passenger ticket and "git," or he would occupy a box all to 
himself in the baggage-car. 

The reel life of the town is the movie people who come 
here to make pictures, put up at the swell hotels, and act at 
night in a way that would be severely censured in good 
society and censored on the screen. 

The town of St. Augustine has reformed like the saint it 
was named after, who, according to his own classic "Con- 
fessions," after being a devil in his own home town of Car- 
thage, became a philosopher and preacher. 

PALM BEACH NUTS 



ALM BEACH is where the palm is held out for your 
money as soon as you land. What do you go to 
see? See your money go. We went to the 
beach. It was cold and no one was in swimming. 
Instead of bare legs we saw bare sand and empty 
chairs. The price was twenty-five cents a chair and 
well worth it if we could have viewed the merry mermaids. 
The white breakers rolled in saying, "Nothing doing," and 
sighed at the absence of fair figures, fancy bathing suits and 
fastidious pleasure-seekers. This beach was like any other 
for no one was there, but on warm days, when the girls are 
there. Palm Beach is better than the first row in a burlesque 
show. Then color, costume, commotion, low necks, high 
skirts, bare legs, wicked winks and studied poses kindle the 
onlooker's thoughts into a flame that Neptune cannot put out. 
This is the place for high jinks that would shame the half- 
naked savages of the South Seas and outdo the love-antics of 
the nymphs and Gods in old mythology. 

We didn't swim, play golf, dance or flirt, yet managed to 
get in the "push" by having a negro trundle us in a sort of 
invalid rattan wheel-chair, variously called a "pushmobile" 



4 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

and "Afromobile." Passing along the shore of Lake Worth, 
with its private yachts and homes, we wound through the 
"jungle trail" with its birds, trees and flowers, and reached 
the "alligator farm" with its crocodiles and sea-cow. It was 
a relief to get away from showy, human nature to this soli- 
tude of nature, though stillness was broken by our ebony 
guide who told us things that made us think this wild jungle 
trail was very tame except for the wild lovers who haunted 
it afternoons and nights. At Palm Beach nothing is free save 
the air, looks and morals of the visitors. 

"On with the dance and off with formality and extra 
clothes," is the slogan of the fast crowd who dance in the 
Cocoanut Grove at 5 P. M. I watched the colored lights 
shine on highly colored cheeks and costumes. Even in the 
slow dances many of the colors were fast. Now it was a mad 
mob of merry-makers, then a swarm of butterflies, or a bunch 
of Bacchantes. In the morning you see the beach nuts, in 
the evening the Cocoa nuts. 

It was a relief to meet my Minneapolis tent and avniing 
friend, C. M. Rawitzer, sitting with his family contented and 
yawning in the shade of the palm trees. 

Dinner is the day's event at the Poineiana Hotel. 'Tis a 
thrilling sight to see an army of waiters "charge" through 
miles of dinner-table trenches, while the guests, armed with 
saber knives and bayonet forks, fight to get food. After the* 
attack the survivors sit around in the lobby, stand or march 
about the miles of halls and foyers, shooting glances at each 
other and attempting to make "conquests." Despite the heat 
of the room there were many chilling glances and cold shoul- 
ders if you were not one of the "regulars." Giddy boys and 
girls, thorough-bred sports of men and women were all there 
to see and be seen, to show all they dared, to flaunt their 
gold and diamonds and exhibit everything they could on 
their outside which did but advertise the naked poverty of 
their inner mentality and morality. 

'M"id all this glare, gold and giddiness I watched an old 
woman, who was out of the society race, but painfully anxious 
to be noticed. This slave of fashion with rope of pearls 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 5 

around her neck, bosom bound round with chains of gold, and 
handcuffed with bracelets, leaned back in her chair. When 
she saw me look at her she raised the lace on her breast that 
I might see her hidden diamonds, then rested her withered 
arms for me to' admire her bracelets, moved her bony, bedia- 
moned fingers, heaved her upholstered bosom, and writhed her 
wrinkled, snaky neck. 

Ye gods, what a sight! This last leaf on life's tree — this 
winter of discontent amid these tropical surroundings — this 
dying spark in life's conflagration of passion — this woman of 
three score years making this unholy show of herself, when 
she ought to be in bed or with a Bible on her knees preparing 
to meet her God. This after-dinner sideshow was a fulsome 
fiesta of Fashion, a vicious Vanity Fair. I was glad to leave. 

The ''Beach Club" is the Monte Carlo of U. S. A. To gain 
admission you must be a member, or be vouched for by a 
member in good standing. I met a member who offered to 
take me in and show me around. I had seen the real Monte 
Carlo abroad and was told this was like it with its games 
and sports. I did manage to get by the Cerberus at the door, 
but was then politely stopped by a smiling, monkey flunky 
with an expression of, "Thus far shalt thou go and no fur- 
ther."' He informed me I couldn't enter without being in 
evening dress. Since I was like the man in Scripture, without 
the wedding garment, I was cast out. Nevertheless, at the 
door I saw two old satyrs taking a chance with two pow- 
dered, painted dames, who in life's game had evidently lost 
everything worth having. One of the girls was tipsy. They 
made some fly remarks and were welcomed in. 

This "Beach" club is a place of financial and moral 
wrecks. It is openly run in defiance of the Florida state law 
against gambling. There is not a law of man or God that it 
does not break, except the one that unless you wear a tuxedo 
or Prince Albert you cannot enter. Here hearts, heads and 
bank accounts are broken. Fabulous amounts exchange 
hands among the players. If you are just a looker-on you pay 
for the privilege — a dollar for a glass of water or ten dollars 
a plate for light luncheon. Question: Why does the gov- 



6 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

ernment pinch the little gamblers and permit this "white 
house" to be a black palace of ruin and despair? 

Palm Beach is a rich fool's paradise — a lunatic limbo for 
people with loud clothes, lots of money, loose morals and light 
heads. There is some excuse for the routine of an insane 
asylum but none for the silly Palm Beach daily program. 
Here it is: Yawns, idleness, ennui and indigestion; dressing 
for beach and undressing for dinner; sun tan at the "Brown- 
ing Club" and tonic baths; whisking around in an invalid 
wheel chair in company of dudes and pug dogs; driveling 
talk of clothes and looks; drinking pink tea or cocktails; 
reading the latest trash ; spooning, dancing, flirting, golfing, 
yachting, sporting, and parading high-jpriced dogs, cats and 
monkeys whose mentality and morals are often higher than 
their owners. 

Palm Beach is the place where bad people go to have a 
good time. The more disreputable the resort, the more popu- 
lar it is to high society. Poor pleasure-seekers, whose law is 
fashion and folly their pursuit! Bubbles on the wave of 
pleasure, a tracery on the sand which time's tide will soon 
erase. Every year the siren voice of society calls, "Get into 
the social sv/im of Palm Beach; come with your private car, 
or in your yacht on the Gulf stream of gold; come with full 
purse and empty head and heart; come, you 'best' society, 
that you may be seen at your worst ; come, all ye who would 
desert the temple of your mind and soul for this Circe's palace 
of fleshly pleasures." 

Even Mother Nature here is togged out in society form, 
laced and corseted. Trees and flowers are trimmed out of_ all 
picturesqueness ; natural curves give way to geometrical 
squares ; lawns are imprisoned in concrete curbs ; the air is 
perfumed with the balmy fragrance of cigarettes and cigars; 
there is no rest found iDeneath palms, fruit trees or among 
plants and flowers on account of the stinging swarm of society 
gnats. Florid Florida folders describe Palm Beach as para- 
dise, but the attractions to me were outside the garden. 
Everything is overestimated. It is very far from the luxuri- 
ance of Hawaii, the sport of Monte Carlo, the beauty and his- 
tory of Mediterranean resorts. It takes more than a railroad 
and a big hotel to beat them. 




INSURRECTOS ARRESTED 



HAVANA, CUBA 




HOME, SWEET HOME IN YUCATAN 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 



Palm Beach pauperizes and provokes. Her short season 
sickens and shames. She is the painted, pampered prostitute 

of Florida. "Do as you d please," is her motto. This 

was no place for me or a minister's son, so "L" and I took 
the midnight train for Key West. 



A BUNCH OF KEYS 



WE lay "dovrn to pleasant dreams and awoke with a jerk 
early next morning to find ourselves covered with 
white blankets of sand. The train did not come with 
break-neck speed through the swamps, but it stopped 
with a jerk that drove my head against the partition and nearly 
broke my neck. This Flagler system is a heathen law to itself. 
Porters and conductors are not overobliging or courteous, and 
their rules, while on the run, are like Vanderbilt's, ''The 

public be d d." Yet one can scarcely blame them when 

he recalls the fussy society folks and mutt millionaires who 
travel on this East Coast route expecting heaven above and 
all earth beneath to wait on them and their whims. 

Like the people who imagine there is a bridge connecting 
Australia with New Zealand, I had always thought this Flor- 
ida "sea-going" railroad ran over a low bridge all the way 
to Key West, and the waves dashed up to wash the cars and 
clean the sand from the trucks. But it was muchly other- 
wise. Instead, the road from Miami to Key West is 156 miles 
across some 30 little islands, called "keys," joined by steel 
and concrete bridges. Eiding along you see a smooth, glassy 
gulf, green, blue and gold and gemmed with palmy islands 
between which appears now and then a white-gleaming sail of 
a fisherman's boat. 

If you are a disciple of Izaak Walton and worship ichthy- 
ology you may make a short stay at Long Key, or some other 
point, and catch over 300 varieties of fish — maybe. Cavalla, 
barracuda, amber-jack, sharks, swordfish, devil-fish, and tar- 
pon, known as silver king, are waiting to be caught or catch 
you. These keys unlock untold wealth to the fishermen. 



8 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

The word "key" is from the Spanish "cayo," meaning 
island. Key West signifies "Cayo Hueso," which means 
"Bone Key." "Ki-yo Way-so," "Cayo Hueso," degenerated 
into "Key West," and Key West has been degenerating ever 
since. The word is supposed to refer to the bones of the 
early Indian inhabitants, but the only bones you find now are 
bone heads and fish bones. 



SPONGES 

AT Key West we stopped at the Oversea Hotel and then 
started out to see the sponge industr3^ I had just had 
ample proof that the sponge belonged to the animal 
kingdom, for we had traveled here with human 
sponges who crowded the sleeper aisles with extra baggage and 
in the washroom "soaked" up all the space. They filled the 
seats with the contents of handbags, hung up coat, vest and 
tie on different hooks, stood in the middle of the room splash- 
ing water like a walrus, or cleaned their testh and spouted 
water like a whale. Some wrestled with a towel in taking a 
bath, others stood with arm akimbo getting a cowardly shave 
with a safety razor, and one old man bestrode the room like a 
Colossus as he picked up an old-fashioned razor and braced 
himself to avoid cutting off his ear, nose or lip. 

Along shore we saw a fleet of sponge boats. A wooden, 
weather-beaten, barn-like warehouse stood near by. We 
climbed up its rickety stairs to see the process of scrap- 
ing, drying, cutting, sorting and packing the sponge. 
The manager was kind and I "sponged" on him for 
information. Sponges for the United States were formerly 
shipped from the Mediterranean and the Bahamas, but later and 
better from Key West after 1852. Then some 150 sailing ves- 
sels, with 1,500 men, brought back catches from around Key 
West that were worth seven and eight hundred thousand dol- 
lars. There is a great falling off now. The men go much further 
and get less. In 1904 the Greeks came with diving apparatus 
and made headquarters at Tarpon. The old catcher shook his 
grizzled head and said it was too bad. The Greeks grabbed 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 9 

the young sponges, tramped all over the beds with ruin, so 
that today the sponge industry is quietly sleeping in its bed 
and almost dead. 

The sponge is a fish and an animal. When his thin, slimy 
skin — his life — is stripped off, the skeleton is left and that 
is what we use and find in so many closets. Sponges are 
small and big, light-colored and dark, fine and coarse. He 
showed me specimens called "green, ;velvet, grass, glove, 
sheep-nose or wool." 

The sponge belongs to the animal kingdom — so does man, 
the biggest sponge of all. You find him in religion, society, 
business and politics, always soaking up and getting something 
for himself, seldom giving out anything much but dirt. The 
human sponge takes the cake for being dirty and selfish. 
Don't be a sponge; be a fountain, an artesian well, and give 
up and out for others. 



IN THE SOUP 

TjHERE is no mock-turtle soup here, for they have the 
I real thing. I went back of "turtle dock" and saw 
^^^1 the "crawls." Here were half a dozen turtles 
^^^^^B swimming in pens where they are kept and fed on 
sea-weed until the time comes for them to be fished out and 
killed. They are vegetarians, eating no kind of meat. They 
tip the scales anywhere from 25 to 1,000 pounds, but the 
choice specimen is about 200 pounds. Formerly they were 
caught around Key West waters. Now they are scarce and 
are found in the Caribbean. Poor turtle ! One came up for 
breath and looked at me as much as to say, "Are you the 
cannibal who kidnapped me from my happy home and put 
me in this little pen?" Byron's poetry, "Love of the turtle 
now melts into sorrow," has been revised by prosy Key West 
to read, "The love of the turtle now melts into soup." I was 
unwilling to linger and see his "sorrow" and turned towards 
the ' ' damned ' ' blood spot on the wharf where his brother and 
sister had been beheaded the day before. This made me sick 
and I went to the turtle canning factory, the only one of its 
kind in the world, where they boil out in vats and cut up 



10 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

Mr. Turtle into a fine grade of green, greasy soup that is 
canned and exported for epicures the world over. It's fine; 
I ordered it three times a day in restaurant and cafe. 



KEY WESTERS 



KEY WEST caters to the epicures with acquired taste 
for unnecessary luxuries of sponges, turtles and 
cigars. The cigar is one of the trinity that lives and 
rules here. What it needs to thrive on is clear atmos- 
phere, equable climate, good water, freedom from smoke and 
dust. It does well here. Of the many cigar factories, we 
visited the *'Cortez" and watched the process I have seen in> 
Cuba and the Philippines. A reader was entertaining the 
hands with a story while their hands were busy rolling, filling 
or wrapping the cigars. A rose or cigar by any other 
name smells as sweet or strong to me. I don't smoke, but 
they say these cigars burn well. It may be because they are 
named after Cortez, who burned ships and natives and is now 
probably burning himself. 

We took a staring stroll about the town. There were 
no flies on Thomas Jefferson, but there were many on the 
hotel here that bears his name. Key West is America's 
Gibraltar. It is situated between the gulf and sea and in 
some ways is more "rocky" than the European place. The 
naval barracks were closed, the courthouse and coffee houses 
were open and filled. In one coffee place we saw several 
school-children, about nine or ten years old, sitting around 
a table. I supposed they would order ice-cream. You 
can imagine my horror to hear them call for black coffee, 
which they drank without milk and with plenty of sugar. 
After this they lighted cigarets and walked out as if they 
were real, big men. Coffee is the beverage since the liquor 
saloons are closed. It is strong, but makes the excessive 
drinker weak. I noticed a man leave a court-room desk. 
Without waiting to put on his coat, he hurried to the caf6 to 
get a big glass of coffee. Smoking cigars, quaffing coffee, eat- 
ing turtle soup are the chief pursuits of man here. 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 11 

Key West is a loafer's paradise. Men stand on street cor- 
ners, idle on docks, doze in windows. Laziness is so prev- 
alent that one sees signs near steps of the public build- 
ings, "Sitting Prohibited." The only busy beings I saw in the 
streets were ants. Men lean, houses lean, everything has a 
lean and hungry look. Homes and buildings are mostly wood, 
ramshackle and unpainted. I saw many burned houses. Had 
they burned with shame at their neglected condition, or were 
they in ashes because careless smokers had thrown lighted 
stumps on them? 

I met one man who was an exception to this general rule of 
idleness. He evidently was not the hero of Dekker's "Shoe- 
maker's Holiday," for he is busy all the time. I looked at 
and listened to him while he fixed "L's" shoes. He had been 
a worker all over the world, a gold-miner and diamond-digger 
in South Africa, and could speak five languages. He came to 
Key "West for work and worked, but it was such an unusual 
and demoralizing sight that the lazy lookers-on were first 
astonished, then jealous, and afterwards made fun of him, 
calling him names, and finally plotted against him and trapped 
him into trouble. 

Crooks go straight to Key "West. Not only are many ships 
wrecked near by, but it is the place of moral driftwood. Once 
the haunt of the pirate and smuggler, it became the rendezvous 
of the crook and gambler. I met a former gambler on the 
street. He told me the town was ruined, for gambling had 
been shut down a few weeks before, and that he had been com- 
pelled to open a butcher shop to make his daily bread. His 
eight-year-old son stood by him, looked into his dear papa's 
face and listened earnestly as the father spoke in praise of the 
virtues of roulette and drink. The only "wicked" game I 
saw that night was one of checkers at a colored club, I ate a 
Key "West dinner in a former dive. The turtle soup was tooth- 
some, the proprietor said his place was clean now and he would 

be G d d if he'd have any one around who swore in 

his presence. 

The citizens of Key "West are born with cigars in their 
mouth and at an early age are well educated in the arts of 
loafing, stealing, smuggling and gambling. The good people 



12 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

are very good — the bad, not atrociously bad, but addicted to 

small vices. 

The city boasts the finest brand of climate in the U. S. A., 
and is the only American city below the Yankee frost line. 
Its golden sunshine, gulf current, soft trade winds are excel- 
lent for everything but work. Key West is a lovely location 
for the Castle of Indolence, 

Florida climate is great for oranges, grapefruit and 
"crackers." The state raises the finest fruit and some of the 
poorest specimens of humanity. The climate is a bane and 
not a blessing. Florida is the outer reef of Latin manana 
land. It would postpone the sun's rising or setting and do 
tomorrow, or never, what should be done today. Florida really 
belongs to the Procrasti-Nation. Her "cracker" citizens are 
pulled off the stage of action by the "hook" worm. 

From the time the passengers on Noah's Ark talked of the 
weather it has been a leading topic of conversation. Good cli- 
mate is something but not everything. I would no more speak 
disrespectfully of the climate than of the equator. Were the 
subject of climate and weather to fail, the universal topic of 
conversation would cease. How could strangers break the 
ice, or lovers grow warm, or diplomats succeed if there was 
no weather to talk about? Cloud or shine, heat or cold, rain 
or frost mean much. Think of rain on the bride, snow on the 
coffin, frost on the oranges, showers at picnics, clouds before 
church time or a ball game ! Was it not rain-made mud that 
was one cause of a lost Waterloo? The recent cold spell in 
Florida spelled the ruin of 75 per cent of its fruit and vege- 
tables. 

HAVANA'S SATANIC SABBATH 



THE good ship "Governor Cobb" took us the ninety 
_ miles from Key West to Havana. The dinner was 

e^p^' good and a smooth sea enabled us to retain our nour- 
^^SsBM ishment. At sunset we swung by old Moro Castle, 
docked and stepped into Havana and into a Cuban revolution 
of which we were to see much and hear more. 

Sunday morning the market was full of people buying and 
selling, but that was not the only place of traffic. In the plaza 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 13 

I met two American tourists seated on a bench who hailed me 
and said, "Hello, see what we got." I looked and found two 
Cuban girls by their side. They were not their wives or sis- 
ters, just some of the many female friends one picks up here 
for little or nothing. 

After this illustrated sermon, "Thou shalt not — ," I hur- 
ried to the Baptist church, where I heard Dr. Lucas preach. 
At the close of the service he came down, took me by the 
hand and performed a miracle by saying, "I'm glad to see 
you. I can't forget the speech you made twenty years ago in 
Chicago." Whether he intended this as a compliment or not 
I leave my reader to decide. 

In harmony with the race of Cubans there was a horse- 
race this Sabbath afternoon. Taking a slow street car we 
finally reached a park paddock. The revolution was on, yet 
there was no falling off of the crowd. Preceding the race 
there was a ball game between the "Reds'^ and "Whites." 
To a real baseball fan it was a blue spectacle. The crowd 
was impatient for the race, and when the game ended they 
rushed for the course. 

This Oriente track has a bad name even among sports. 
During the racing season Havana is a crooks' convention city. 
There was no exhibition of fine, fast horses or fast time, simply 
of a fast set who threw the races to the bettors who gave the 
most graft. Even racing people complained through the col- 
umns of the press at the rank raw deals given day after day. 
It was no such gala affair as I had seen in Sydney or Buenos 
Aires, where horse-racing is a society and sporting event. The 
horses were poor, the jockeys fouled, sprints were short as if 
the horses were not acclimated. They were long at the post 
in starting and the races were pulled off in the corner of 
a back stretch instead of in front of the grandstand. It was 
hot, but the betting fever was hotter. The horse race was 
slow, the human race fast with boozing and gambling, curs- 
ing and crookedness. 

Sunday in Cuba is an all-around sport day, and to make it 
complete we went to a cockfight. En route we passed by a 
country pavilion where dancing swains were swirling and 
sweating, and by a football game that was making a center- 
rush through the commandment, "Remember the Sabbath day 



14 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

to keep it holy." The Cuban loves a fight, whether it is 
political, revolutionary, bull or cock fight. The cockpit was 
packed, and from the wild howls and yells issuing from it, it 
might well have been called the bottomless pit. Not only 
were game men and roosters here, but old hens and "chick- 
ens" were fluttering their fans in the boxes, puffing cigarets 
and applauding when the cocks pecked each other's head to ai 
bloody pulp. Here, too, betting was the main feature, the 
goddess of chance presiding, and man, Plato's two-legged ani- 
mal without feathers, received the money. 

Next on the Cuban's pious program is to visit the Malecon. 
There we saw them drink daquirias, view Morro and the sea, 
listen to the band, promenade the walks, watch the passing 
autos and flirt with and mash the Cuban ladies. 

The next act of Cuban devotion is to attend the theatre. > 
Havana prides herself on a theatre that would have shocked a 
veteran theatre-goer in Sodom. We watched two girls on the 
stage vie with each other in vile dances. Their loose-fitting 
robes fell off as they danced until only one piece of X-ray 
underwear remained. Every move and posture was one of 
studied lewdness. The worse the word and act the greater 
the applause. It would have disgraced the Roman "Floralia" 
when obscene dances were performed upon the stage by the 
lowest courtezans. "When I commented on this stage of af« 
fairs I was told things were much "better" now than a month 
before, when the dancers had nothing on at all. Foul maga- 
zines, Ijooks and pictures, recently prohibited from public sale, 
could still be had at the theatre entrance. 

After the show I went to one of the leading hotels. In the 
foyer I met a polished Cuban gentleman who introduced him- 
self. He invited me to join a party that night to be held at 
the home of some young ladies who were to dance divested of 
all necessary apparel and entertain the guests with the latest 
diversions in debauchery. When I said I was unable to go, 
he told me of his literary attainments. I found he was a 
most accomplished gentleman and scholar. He had just trans- 
lated a book of smutty Spanish stories into the best depraved 
English without losing any of the original impurity of the 
Spanish. He wished to show and sell me the book. I replied 
I wasn't making collections of literary garbage on this trip. 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 15 

One night I met my great artist friend, Paderewski, and 
shook hands with him and his wife. He remembered me and 
the warm welcome he had received in Minneapolis and spoke 
of the Mill City's kindness and generosity. In Havana he was 
given a chilly reception. The audience was small and their 
appreciation and applause was even smaller. It was so shame- 
ful that he canceled one of his concerts. A newspaper said it 
was because of rheumatism in his fingers. I don't think so. 
It was the inartistic, indifferent, icy heart of Havana, and 
just what you may expect where people think more of a danc- 
er's shapely foot than of the heart and hand of the world's 
greatest living pianist. 

There is time, money and room for everything but mental 
attainment. The press called attention to the crying shame 
that there was no place for many children to go to school, and 
then only for a few hours daily, that a large per cent of 
Havana children grew up without even elementary education, 
and that the !^/'hool period had been cut to take care of more 
scholars. All appeals for betterment were met with the 
answer that there were no school funds available. Yet there is 
plenty of lottery money. Why not withold some of this 
swindling graft for schools? 



INSURRECTION— CUBA'S PASTIME 



THE Latin American pastime of revolution was in full 
swing when we landed in Havana. President Meno- 
cal had discovered plots to kill him in his palace and 
was on guard and guarded. Daily, insurrectos were 
caught and led prisoners through the streets in wire-caged 
carts. The fort of Cabanas was closed to tourists, as it was 
filled with high-treason plotters. Every train from the coun- 
try brought in crowds of captured rebels and revolting mayors 
were arrested. The "Heraldo" paper was suppressed for "ex- 
aggerated statements" and all copies confiscated, taken from 
newsdealers and even from the hands of readers in the street. 
Teleqrraph lines were cut, bridges burned, train service inter- 
rupted, daily battles reported in the country, and sugar plan- 
tations and mills set on fire. Yet Havana, the capital city, 



16 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

laughed, said it was a joke, and told tourists not to be fright- 
ened, for the revolution would be over in a few days. But 
those on the "inside" knew it was a serious matter, and when 
I returned two months later it was still going on and as bad 
as ever. 

This revolution I had prophesied a year before, when here, 
and spoke of on the lecture platform and in my book on my 
return to America. Some people thought I was unduly ex- 
cited, but I had the goods and knew the "dope." I had trav- 
eled from Santiago to Havana and met Liberals who said their 
man would be elected at the coming elections without any 
doubt, and if he was, and the crooked "ins" tried to count 
him out, they intended to fight even if the revolution caused 
United States intervention. The elections came off, and but 
for President Menocal's millions, friends and political graft- 
ers, it was conceded that Zayas, the Liberal candidate, was 
elected. This stirred up a hornet's nest. Menocal had money, 
soldiers and all else that he used in public and private against 
Zayas at the polls. Menocal occupied the presidential chair 
and his might made right. It isn't a new thing for Latin dic- 
tators to use arms to be re-elected. Now when I was here 
there was a "re-election" in Santa Clara and Camaguey 
provinces, Menocal^ soldiers were stationed at the booths and 
all would-be Liberal voters were intimidated. 

On this trip to Matanzas my train was preceded by train 
loads of soldiers en route to shoot rebels. At the Matanzas 
station I met a Liberal who first looked around to see if he 
was watched, and then told me in whispers of Menocal's force 
and intimidation that arrested the Liberals whether they had 
plotted or not or were unarmed. 

The Cuban rebels burn and pillage, threaten U. S. capital 
and life, and will continue to until Uncle Sam lands on the 
usurper I\renocal instead of landing marines on the Cuban 
shore. The negro rebels do not forget that in 1912 5,000 of 
their race were killed and their wrongs never avenged. Thej'- 
are organized to terrorize by torch and snake. A Liberal told 
me the snake dreads fire, and they were prepared to repeat the 
Samson act of the fire-brands, only in this case to tie torches 
to the snakes' tails, light the torches, then set the snakes free 




THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 17 

to glide through the sugar cane plantation and so do great 
damage by fire. 

The "watchful waiting" that has ruined Mexico will do 
the same for Cuba. The rebels burn and raid, yet Menocal 
has so hypnotized the U. S. government that it believes the 
revolution there is over and all is well. 



MATANZAS' HERMITAGE AND CAVES 

N front of the Matanzas station there was a park with 
an iron fence around it. It was filled with rubbish, 
papers and filth. A dirty statue stood in the centre 
of it — a fit presiding goddess over the unclean natives 
around. Like the natives, the statue needed a bath. 

We lunched at a hotel. The one attractive thing on the 
menu was the fair cashier, but she was not included in the 
bill — she was extra. There was an abundance of grapefruit. 
It should always be eaten with an umbrella or in a bath tub. 
Matanzas is the birthplace of Cuban independence. It has 
freedom of everything but dirt. Like other Cuban towns, it 
is well preserved in a fine state of decay. The faces of the 
women were so powdered that they looked as if they had 
taken a somersault in a flour-barrel. The only fight I actu- 
ally saw during the revolution was before our hotel, when 
two ragamuffins mauled and scratched one another as if to 
entertain us. Everybody applauded and the ladies most of 
all. In this liberal town, full of Menocal soldiers and spies, 
this was about the only thing they could applaud or talk of. 

Mountserrate hermitage is one of the sights and our guide 
was a man who had been educated for the priesthood. In 
this place of alleged miracles, the only miracle I saw was that 
any one should believe the laughable legends and foolish fairy 
tales ascribed to Our Lady of Mountserrate. The idea of give 
and take, do this for me and I will do this for you, has resulted 
in a pious pawnshop, where the healed and helped have made 
offerings of flowers, shellwork, beads, jewels, pictures and 
images. The hermitage is here, but the hermit age is gone. 
With so many pretty seiioritas this custom is more honored 



18 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

in the breach than in the observance. No longer does it seem 
seemly for a played-out pleasure-seeker to become a religious 
recluse, and " hermiticaily " seal himself up from society -in 
general while opening his heart to some "friend" in particu- 
lar. Too bad the face of Nature in this beautiful Yumuri Val- 
ley is marred by such an ecclesiastical excrescence 1 I hope 
the hand of Dr. Time vs^ill remove it. 

The Bellamar Caves at Matanzas were discovered by a 
"Chink" vt^ho let his crowbar fall through a chink in the 
ground while digging for limestone. The caves with their 
underground river and tunnels would make a good hiding 
place for rebels, while the curious formations of stalagmite 
and stalactite would make fine war-clubs. Information on 
this formation disproves the proverb that continuous drops of 
water wear away, for it is the drop, with lime in solution, ~ 
that builds up and makes these formations. In the caves I saw 
the "Gothic Temple." Vandals had desecrated it for souven- 
irs and smoked the walls with their names. Now it is lighted 
by electricity. Not only did the water overhead drip on me-, 
but I was dripping wet with sweat. The heat was terrific. 
Before entering the cave it was so warm we removed our 
coats and after climbing and descending some of the three 
miles and thirty separate halls, we were disposed to remove 
everything, including skin and flesh, and sit down in our 
skeletons, though ladies were present. The cave was worse 
than a steam-heated fiat, the paths were slippery as sin and 
I was taught a lesson in humility and that it paid to stoop to 
conquer. Frequently I tested the thickness of the cave walls 
and my skull by bumping my head. I was glad I had sense 
enough left to get out. 

On the way back from Matanzas we not only had the usual 
delay on account of sugar cane that has the right of way, 
but more from soldier transportation. Cuba has a red soil 
fit to raise revolutions and sugar. We didn't care so much 
whether the train was on time as whether it was on the track. 
After six hours wait, improving my "Liberal" education with 
conversation with a man I believed to be thoroughly honest 
and good, we boarded the train for Havana. It was crowded, 
but our empty stomach was not. There was nothing left 
except ginger-ale, dry soda crackers at a big price and some 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 19 

guava jelly which we bought at one of the stations. Many 
of the passengers, who had started that morning for Cama- 
guey, went but a short distance and were compelled to return 
to Havana. They told tales of burned bridges, rebels and 
revengeful feelings that might well be expected from a peo- 
ple who believed that politically they had been grossly and 
greatly wronged. 



SHIP SPORTS 



DIOS to Havana and Cuba Libre! Autoing to the 
wharf we passed a crowd around Menocal's guarded 
palace. I looked at the soldiers and wondered how 
long they would be loyal, for mutiny and desertion 
is the badge of all their tribe. Out from the wharf the 
"Esperanza" lay anchored, and we were soon aboard. She 
was two days late on account of storms, yet there was much 
in her name **Esperanza," "Hope," that springs eternal in 
the human breast. Hope she had been to the fleeing American 
refugees in Vera Cruz, whom she carried to Galveston; hope 
long ago, when she carried happy prospectors to Mexico, which 
seemed a heaven; hope of service to those who fled its literal 
hell. This boat had carried ammunition labeled as hardware 
a few months before from the United States to Vera Cruz. 
One of the boxes dropped and the "hardware" cartridges 
rolled out on the wharf. This was the time when our govern- 
ment had placed an embargo on ammunition. It was unlaw- 
ful, but I regret the "Esperanza" did not carry enough to 
supply an army of our soldier boys down there so that the 
miserable Mexican farce of go and come and hide and seek 
might long since have been ended. 

J. R. Curtis was the Captain of the "Esperanza," and th« 
C in his name stands for capability, courage, courtesy and 
consideration. This tribute testimony I give him is only an 
echo of the compliment he officially received from the "War 
Department at "Washington for saving American lives. The 
ship crew was a bunch of fine boys who gave splendid service 
in spite of the spigotty passengers whose habits were disgust- 
ing in room, deck and at the table, and whose evil communi- 



20 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

cations would corrupt good manners and ruin any ship. If 
it wasn't for the Latin passengers the Ward Line would be 
perfect. Its staterooms, table board and deck accommoda- 
tions are in every way desirable. If the U. S. government 
takes the letter d from the "Ward Line and impresses its boats 
into service, it will be a first-class War Line in every respect. 

That night when the dining tables were filled, a refined, 
typical Latin passenger attracted my attention by coughing up 
phlegm and spitting on the floor. The other Latins failed to 
notice it, for with them it is a usual thing. This was enough 
to make me seasick, but fortunately the sea was smooth. 
Later there was dancing on deck to the grind of a grapho- 
phone. The senoras pounded the piano in the saloon parlor 
while Latin lovers were in close quarters in the bow or stern 
of the ship, 

Latin American boats seem to carry more game sports 
than any other ship line. The smoke room was the social 
centre day and night. The drink tables were turned into 
card tables and on the turn of a pasteboard fortunes changed 
hands. Gold and bills were piled up as in banks, and fate 
and fortune made good and bad exchange. 

The sun is the only thing that rises early in Yucatan. We 
reached her port of Propreso at daybreak, anchored four miles 
off shore because the water was so shallow, and it was nearly 
noon before the lighter arrived to take us ashore. Passengers 
before disembarking were asked questions many and definite, 
by government officials, to learn whether they were honorable 
men and women and with honorable intentions. After the 
doctor looked me over he asked if I had ever been to Yucatan 
before. Useless question! As if one who had ever been here 
before would care to return, or if he cared to, would have 
anything left to return with. But there is a reason. Alvarado, 
Yucatan's dictator, has banished his enemies, and his agents 
are everywhere watching for their return. 

With heavy hearts we looked at the loading of our bag- 
gage on the lighter. An American baggage man would turn 
green with envy to see how the stuff is banged and battered. 
The natives unloaded a brand new auto whose enamel and 
glass gleamed in the sun, and then proceeded to pile big bags, 
bales and boxes or whatever else they could on it. The owner 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 21 

vainly protested as the boxes were dropped and dumped 
•down on his car. I fear that by the time it made the four- 
mile trip to shore it looked as if it had made a cross-continent 
trip. Then I noticed they were using one of my valises as a 
platform on which to throw valises and trunks. I yelled 
something they seemed to understand, though not in their lan- 
guage, and they quit. The boat bar was crowded. It is a 
long time between drinks in Yucatan, for liquor is prohibited 
on shore, and boats come infrequently. 

Leaving "Esperanza" hope behind, and Captain Curtis and 
his crew, we at last got off and made slow progress to Pro- 
greso over a sunny, sapphire sea. In the distance gleamed the 
land, a long line of yellow sand with green palms and light- 
house. 



*CUSTOM"ARY THIEVES 



AT the wharf we successfully attacked an army of 
Yucatan beggar boys and compelled two of them to 
carry our bags to the custom home, the customary 
penalty of visiting a foreign land. I always travel 
with hand bags in Latin America, for I have learned it is an 
expensive nuisance to carry a trunk. The officers soon saw, 
there was nothing worth taking out of hand bags and they 
passed us up, but woe betide the trunk traveler, the woman 
with her fine dresses, the drummer with his samples and the 
merchant and contractor with their goods. 

The vultures here live on the refuse and these custom 
house buzzards live on what they can pick off the strangers. 
You are lucky to get out of Progreso with the clothes on your 
back. No package of any size or value ever gets through to 
the capital at Merida without an enormous bribe. My travel- 
ing companion B > — was delayed a week here and in addi- 
tion paid an excessive bribe and fine of $150 to get his trunks 
of merchandise to the capital. These grafters made him pay 
as much for machine-made as hand-made lace. Later in Merida 
I met a man who knew how to "fix" matters, and he slipped 
$2,000 worth of goods through by greasing the custom house 
hand with $200. In this custom house samples are stolen, 



22 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

boxes broken open and contents pilfered. Trunks disappear, 
and canned goods, fruit and market produce are "appropri- 
ated." One importer told me that out of ten barrels of apples 
six barrels were stolen, and three ba'rrels out of six were rot- 
ten. From an order of 200 bottles of champagne he only re- 
ceived 65. One of my fellow travelers had his trunk wilfully 
misplaced in this custom house and later had to go back to 
New York without it. The revenue system, as in all Mexican 
and Latin American ports, is rotten. Instead of helping you, 
they throw every possible hindrance in your way, on the 
principle that the longer they detain your goods, the more 
time they will have to make a careful selection of what they 
want. A $500 auto delivered at Progreso costs the buyer 
$1,500 before he can get it to Merida, the capital, twenty-four 
miles away. This is a very poor run for your money. But 
there is no use to kick or cry. It is a government job in pay 
for services rendered. The pilfer privilege is part of the cus- 
tom contract. The custom chief needs money for himself and 
subordinates, whom he has also bribed. This may be news to 
some readers, but not to travelers through Latin America, 
where the L and A stand for "looters all" and "larceny 
always." 

Making our way through sun-dazzling, dusty streets, we 
arrived at the hotel. It is called "Llano," but from its smell 
and food should be called "Guano." Piling our bags in a cor- 
ner near our dinner table, to see they were not stolen, we sat 
down. I picked up the menu and found that dirt and flies 
were the two leading things on it. "L" and I had a suspi- 
cious-looking omelet, some stale tomatoes, hard bread and a 
glass of orange ade, for all of which we paid $4 gold, though 
there was less than $1 worth of food. Prices are designedly 
left oflf the menu card and there are wide margins for them 
to fill in and charge you any price they please. We had no 
napkins, but I noticed an innovation. After this luxurious 
feast I went to a wash-basin near by where there was a pack 
of toilet paper in lieu of towels. I didn't wash. One look 
at the hotel rooms was enough, with their bare floors, iron 
beds, filthy coverings, and they are only to be reached by a 
walk through a slimy patio. A week here would make a man 
bankrupt or bughouse. 




THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 23 

WHISKEY IN CHURCH 

HINGS were more attractive outdoors than inside, 
and despite the terrific heat we roamed around the 
town; saw the lighthouse that shines out seventeen 
miles to sea ; big warehouses piled high with bales of 
henequen ; flat cars loaded with sisal ; the busy ship offices ; the 
drowsy market with ice-cream sellers; the sun-baked plaza 
with plants and statues, and little stores and shops full of 
American goods. 

I went to a pretty stone church and was met at the door by 
a smiling custodian in shirt sleeves, who piloted me around. 
There were no worshippers, yet the atmosphere was very 
"spiritual." God had been superseded by Gambrinus. The 
altars were boxes of booze, and the pulpits beer kegs. There 
were liquor invoices instead of choir voices; whiskey stains 
and not stained glass; the stations of the cross were hidden 
behind two-by-four cross beams; the attendants were clerks 
and not clerics, and robed in short sleeves and long smiles 
instead of long robes and long faces. Where was I? In a 
former house of God which had been converted into a whiskey 
warehouse. One would think a "spiritual" church like this 
would appeal to many and show a large membership, but no 
one is permitted to join or enter. 

A change has come over the spirit of the Yucatan people. 
They grew tired of a creed that chained them in body, mind 
and soul ; of a church that gave them stone architecture when 
they cried for bread; of a clergy whose six days' conduct 
gave the lie to their seventh's day creed. So these church 
members broke up their church meetings and furniture, made 
way for liberty, and under Alvarado drove the clergy out of 
the country. Alvarado then acted the part of a prohibition 
dictator, prohibited liquor and made hard drinks harder than 
ever to get. Booze was confiscated and stored in many of the 
closed churches. It was the dry season for Progreso and the 
town was dry except for beer, "cerveza," which is only al- 
lowed in certain places at certain hours. The Yucatan peon 
has a tough time. Strong drink is prohibited and water is 
scarce. Water often costs 13 cents gold a gallon and is much 
higher in the dry season. Each, house has a tank or reservoir. 



24 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

Rain water is caught and well water is pumped up by wind- 
mills for washing and laundry. The cenotes are alkali and 
salty. Still you can get stronger stuff any time, for the wise 
guzzlers have a soft snap in smuggling hard drinks. After 
seeing the town, I am inclined to be charitable and excuse 
anyone who drinks to forget his surroundings. 

Next door to this former house of worship, now a ware- 
house, is a convent building now turned into a public school. 
The church bell has given way to a school bell, and the chil- 
dren come, for come they must, and learn something besides 
musty, Middle Age mummery that has no helpful bearing on 
time or hopeful uplift for eternity. I looked in the door, was 
glad to see maps of the geography of earth, mathematical in- 
stead of saintly figures on the blackboard, books of some 
every-day sense instead of lives of dead saints whose virtues 
never existed except in the lying imagination of their writers. 
The Yuca" tanned" teacher welcomed our curiosity with a 
smile, and when I pointed to my kodak and asked for a pic- 
ture, she quickly assented, dismissed the children and arranged 
them outside in front of the school. 

UNPROGRESSIVE PROGRESO 

USING a mule car as a rubberneck, we rode by stores, 
plazas, sandy streets and towering palms until we 
reached the sea shore. This is Yucatan's Newport 
and in the summer season people come from Merida, 
rent houses and cottages and make it a bathing resort. The 
street cars never run on time and often off the track, yet no 
one is in much of a hurry and so no one cares. Our driver 
stopped the car at his own pleasure, stepped off and got a 
light for his eigaret from an obliging friend of his on the side- 
walk, and then slowly returned to puff the smoke in our 
faces. 

The outskirts of Progreso were bedraggled with water and 
mud. The streets were like lakes and the natives paddled in 
flat boats from one thatched house to another. This back wa- 
ter from the ocean does not dampen the spirits or worry them. 
Nothing does. They are all very tame Indians. At night the 
town goes to bed early or to the movies. When a lover wants 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 25 

to see his sweetheart alone, he gives her parents tickets to 
the movies. They go and he stays and often plays the part of 
Faust to Margaret, using her home as a place of shame and 
ill-fame. 

The only light is the light house. The red light has been 
extinguished by Alvarado's orders, but with this result, as 
everywhere else in the world, that what is not quarantined is 
scattered. Progreso hotels include lady guests in furnished 
rooms. 

There are all kinds of wrecks here. I met a captain whose 
ship had been wrecked a few weeks before in a "norther" 
hurricane. He had vainly tried to procure tools to get his boat 
off the reefo After two days' waiting he discharged his sail- 
ors, for he couldn't afford to feed them. No one stops in Pro- 
greso if he can help it. Even the ships dread the place on 
account of the shoals, shallow water and "northers" that sweep 
around. The population is mostly composed of pirates who 
rob the visitors coming, staying and going. Prices are higher 
than the lighthouse, and the most unblushing I ever faced. 
Labor is king in Yucatan, Men meet and plan and are strongly 
organized. Even the laborers on the lighters demand about 
seven dollars gold for eight hours' work. 

Grladly and not sadly I left Progreso, although my first- 
class rail ticket compelled me to hang onto the platform steps 
on account of the crowd. There were no extra coaches, though 
the company knew they were needed. They had our money 
and that was all they wanted. The trip to the capital is 
twenty-four miles, first through dark, monotonous marshes, 
then by green henequen fields stretching for miles and miles 
on both sides of the track. The plant is green, strong and 
sturdy, as it rises from this coral rock. Many of the planta- 
tions had gone to blossom through lack of labor and were 
therefore worthless. 

YUCATAN CHEWING GUM 



T 



HE little suburb lights of Merida soon appeared, then 

the city, the depot and a cab, and we were slowly 

trundled to the Hotel Alameda. We climbed a big 

stone staircase to our room. It was large, had a 

front street veranda, boys for chambermaids, a bam-door pad- 



26 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

lock and chain on the door, water was free, soap extra, a 
nightly convention of mosquitoes was thrown in, and as a sou- 
venir the proprietor gave me a chunk of chicle big as a cake 
of soap. 

All some people know of the geography and history of 
Yucatan is the name on a package of Yucatan chewing gum. 
Uncle Sam is the biggest gum-chewer in the world. It takes 
about 7,000,000 pounds of chicle annually to satisfy him, and 
costs him $35,000,000. Gum-chewing is one of America's great- 
est national ''movements," a pastime rivaling baseball and 
rag dances. Gum is a poor substitute for food, yet aids diges- 
tion and expectoration. It sweetens the boozer's breath, eases 
the lover's heartburn, and beautifies ugly mouths. It is a 
short-cut, calesthenic course to the jaws of young and old. 
Ex-ministers, editors and statesmen get their pictures in the 
papers for approving it and a good check in addition, while it 
is an unchecked lubricant to the perpetual jaw-motion of 
female scandal-mongers. The Bible says "Eschew evil" — 
whether it refers to chewing-gum or the rag is a question 
upon which the wisest philosophy of today is undecided. Each 
reader must "choose" for himself. 



A MERIDA MARKET 



LOOKING out of the window in the morning, we saw a 
city of windmills, enough to keep Don Quixote on a 
tilt for a lifetime. It was carnival time. At the big 
market across the street, in addition to food, drink 
and drums, the natives were selling masks and balloons. Street 
musicians played under awnings to attract trade to the stores, 
and the only collection was the crowd. Market prices were 
high, but the place was so clean the death rate should be low. 
There were fish, fruit, vegetables, pigs, chickens, eggs, hats, 
shoes, cloth, waists and piles of soap. With their churches 
closed the Indians believe in washing their clothes and bodies 
and practising a cleanliness that is first-cousin to godliness. 
There was an abundance of the usual tropical fruit, but what 
they liked most were apples imported from New Orleans. They 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 27 

sold for five cents each. This fruit was the apple of their eye. 
The native Mestizo women here are shorty fiat-faced awd wear 
a white, sleeveless, one-piece dress which makes them look 
as if they had just gotten out of bed and were running around 
in their nightgowns. The edges of this holoku Mother Hub- 
bard are stamped with red and blue patterns. The women 
were happy, but carried a cross on their necklace or bracelet. 
They^ were either barefoot or wore high-heeled shoes painted 
in rainbow colors. Merida is oriental in color in the blue and 
white of her houses and the dress of her natives. There are 
seventy-two miles of fairly clean asphalt streets and many 
domes, cupolas and minarets on the public buildings and 
churches. 

A DESPOT 

HERE was no room for us in the Gran Hotel, but we 
called there, for all the travelers, tramps, drummers, 
actors, big reputables and disreputables make it their 
headquarters. Here I met John Vizcarra of New 
Orleans, who knew enough for two. Hotel life in Merida is 
interesting. Guests need not be surprised to be awakened by 
bullets and bands of revolutionists. Two weeks before this 
hotel was the storm centre of political discontent. A Mr. 
Mena came to run against Alvarado for the position of gov- 
ernor. His train was delayed, and when he finally arrived he 
was compelled to make his way through opposing crowds 
armed with sticks and stones to this Gran Hotel, where he 
was to make a speech. He stepped out on the balcony and 
was not only made a target for abusive remarks, but bullets 
from Alvarado 's crowd. The police broke into the hotel and 
arrested him. He was jailed, but finally released on condition 
he would leave Yucatan. His room was No. 5. I entered it 
and saw the bullet marks above the balcony where he had 
spoken. 

"Ne lacessit me impune." Not to fall in with Alvarado is 
to fall out, and you are fortunate if the undertaker does not 
pick you up. Political speeches are limited to subject, time 
and place. If they are not 0. K.'d by the chief, they are in- 
terrupted and finished behind the bars. 




28 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

Alvarado leads the alphabet and all else in Yucatan, He is 
a vest pocket edition of the late czar, and rules with a rod of 
iron. If you object, he removes your objection with the thrust 
of a sword or bayonet, or puts you up against the wall for 
target practice, or hangs you by the neck to a tree on the 
leading avenue. The public is always cordially invited to 
these social gatherings. 

Alvarado came into Yucatan as Carranza's general, but 
jumped into the military saddle and has ruled the people 
with General Consternation ever since. He is a dictator giving 
orders and combining in himself the three governmental func- 
tions of legislature, judge and chief executive. He has been 
called agnostic and atheistic, but is an orthodox believer in the 
trinity of education, prohibition and socialism. 

He has made many public improvements with other people's- 
money, after having first improved his own bank account. 

'Tis but a step to the penitentiary, yet I rode there of my 
own accord. This prison is named after the great liberator, 
Juarez. It is large enough to accommodate the many guests 
and cost upwards of half a million dollars. We overtook a 
number of prisoners marching to the pen and took their pic- 
tures. It is Yucatan's Bastile of body, mind and soul. Alva- 
rado 's. plans are faithfully carried out and his will executed. 
It is the largest building in the city or state, and you may 
always look for such a building when the "state" is a Louis 
XIV big head who says, "I am the state." Given a dictator- 
ship, dungeons will follow and be full. "Turn the rascals" 
out would be a good motto and idea if it made way for the 
bigger government rascals out who should be in. Big as the 
pen is, it would be too small to entertain all of them at once. 



UNDERGROUND RIVERS 



FROM this depression and heat it was a relief to ride 
to the "cenote, " or swimming hole, on the other side 
of the city. When boys play hookey they don't go 
to lake or river, but to these underground water 
caves. Yucatan is coral rock — if you want water it must come 
from the clouds above or river beneath the ground whose bed 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 29 

was made and rocked by earthquakes. The ancient Indians 
discovered where the water came up to the light and they 
naturally built towns by these water holes. Since the streams 
were underground they marked the underflow bed by piles 
of stones above. 

At the end of the tram line we came to a cluster of houses, 
entered a stonewall gate and found ourselves in a big fruit 
orchard of oranges, lemons and palms. There were walks, 
windmills and reservoirs that the once poor, now well-to-do, 
owner was proud to show us. Hearing shouts and splashes, 
we came to the hole in the coral ground with sloping steps 
and there below were men and boys diving and swimming in 
the clear, cool water. One would expect to see in such a ro- 
mantic cavern nymphs and water witches instead of mere 
men and boys. Bewitching Mestizo girls and women do come 
here certain days of the week to wash their clothes and them- 
selves — when no men need apply. The fish in these caves, 
like those in the Mammoth Cave, are said to be blind— what a 
pity! 

Returning and waiting for the tram we watched some boys 
play ball with a stick for a bat and a hat for a glove. They 
appeared to enjoy it more than any professional game I ever 
saw. Baseball is very popular in Yucatan and is advertised 
by big signs on church walls and buildings. All the chil- 
dren play it and there are some crack teams. Let us hope 
they will substitute the game of baseball for the game of war. 



A TAME DANCE 



THAT night we saw a different ball, a carnival dance 
in a club house at the corner of the plaza. None but 
special guests in stylish garments were admitted. We 
stood on the outside with the peon crowd and looked 
in. There was a little program of speaking and singing, then 
the band played and men and women danced in sedate and 
sad style. Apart from the electric lights, it was not a par- 
ticularly brilliant affair to a foreigner, but to the peons it was. 
"With wide-open eyes and mouth of delight, they watched the 



30 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

dancers from 9 p. m. to 3 a. m. This was carnival-time, 
but King Carnival had been dethroned, things were rather 
dark and quiet, so they made the most of this affair. It is the 
one time of the year when they awake from their annual sleep. 
It was very warm and the dancers were very thirsty, yet the 
only drink allowed and served was beer — no cocktails, however 
much desired and appropriate. The beer sold for two dollars 
American gold a bottle. Before the carnival it could be 
bought for a dollar a bottle. People who dance must pay, 
not only the fiddlers, but the liquor dealers as well, who were 
smart enough to corner the beer and double the price. 

There were other dances in various parts of the town that 
Saturday night, reminding me of negro night in Kentucky. 
The streets were so crowded with peons one could hardly pass. 
They were gazing in the open windows, while the autocrats, 
and rich citizens rode around in autos and carriages. It was 
amazing that people familiar with public hangings and shoot- 
ings should stand, straining their eyes and necks, on tip-toe 
for hours to get a peep through a window at the thrilling 
sight of some people drinking beer and dancing a two-step. 
Were it a ballet Russe, can-can, hula-hula or naked South Sea 
island dance, I could understand, but this was beyond my 
ken. These simple pleasures of the natives are very simple. 



CHEER UP! 



L 



AUS deo! Sunday in Yucatan is a real day of rest 
and the tired traveler can get his beauty sleep. He 
is not awakened at 4 a. m. by the infernal jangle of 

church bells and damnable ding-dong one hears all 

the way from Patagonia to Mexico, that beautifully illustrates 
Poe's ''Devil in the Belfry." At nine o'clock Sunday morn- 
ing the people go to the bright plaza and not to the gloomy 
church, to listen to merry band music and not a melancholy 
minister. What a strange sight in a Latin American town. 
The big cathedral was shut and the crowd devoutly happy as 
they sat around on the park benches listening to the band. It 
was a good one playing classic music, military marches and 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 31 

closed with Chopin's "Revolutionary Etude," a most fitting 
and up-to-date selection for a revolutionary people. 

Nature moves oftener to the time of "L 'Allegro" than "II 
Penseroso," the major and not the minor chord predominates. 
The carol of birds, hum of insects, rustle of leaves, ripple of 
water and chirrup of cricket are only sad to those whose 
natures are harsh. There is more of light than shadow, and 
we feel it as we look at matchless sunrise and sunset, glint- 
ing stars, deep green of forest, lighter color of meadow and 
grain field and the sunbeams chased by the wind across hill- 
side and valley. 

The Christ came from heaven to earth to save us from our 
sorrows as well as our sins. The church is not a cemetery, 
the minister is not a death's head and his church members 
should not be mummies. The world was given us to cheer 
our hearts ; religion was never designed to make our pleasures 
less, and when it does we have less of religion and more of 
something else. To be a child of God is to be a happy mem- 
ber of his family in a present Eden which thrills the brain, 
fills the heart and makes us jejoice in the hope of a home 
where sin and sorrow shall never enter. 

The historian, Hume, found that King Edward II had paid 
a jester a crown to make him laugh. That was a good invest- 
ment. How much better it is to have a fool to make one merry 
than experience to make one sad. Why not have Christmas 
cheer fifty-two weeks in the year and let it brighten and bless 
spring, summer and autumn until winter comes again ? 

Shakespeare says, "One may smile and smile and be a vil- 
lain," but I think the man who does not smile is the villain 
"fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils." 

A smile is the difference between man and brute, though a 
laughing hyena is preferable to a scowling misanthrope, and 
a heathen who only wears a smile to a Christian garbed in 
gloom. 

Cheerfulness does more for health and holiness than pills 
and preaching. Why not smile in a good world with a gra- 
cious God? 



32 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

The man ought to be arrested who comes downtown in 
the morning with an insulting scowl which curdles the milk 
of human kindness. One smile is worth a dozen snarls. 

Horace, the Latin poet, taught truth by laughter; in poli- 
tics a smile has controlled kings, and Swift and Heine did 
more by their smiles for freedom than swords. We can't all 
be poets, painters and presidents, but we can all be end men 
to life 's minstrel show. Mark Tapley was always cheerful and 
Sydney Smith said, "I have gout, asthma and seven other 
maladies, but otherwise, thank the Lord, I am very well." 

"A merry heart doeth good like a medicine." 



MERRY MERIDANS 



THERE is an unfinished band stand in the middle of 
the plaza. It has been built up and torn down by 
different governors until it is a standing joke. There 
is not much hope for a government that cannot erect 
a music stand for the people in a principal plaza. 

Alvarado's name is only mentioned with bated breath. In 
fact, in all Mexico, with spies and soldiers all around, you 
must be on guard with your eyes and ears open and your 
mouth shut. In Merida the park benches are arranged in such 
a way that any plotting conversation may be overheard. For 
once I was cautious. I spoke of Alvarado as "alphabetically 
number one," Carranza as *' number three," Diaz as "number 
four," Villa as number "twenty-three," and Zapata as "num- 
ber twenty-six." 

Sunday a few churches are allowed to conduct services 
for the really pious. There are not so many as formerly, but 
enough, and these few are not crowded. We attended the 
Santiago, and there was rivalry between a merry-go-round out- 
side and some sad-faced persons going inside the church. I 
learned the priest was over fifty years old, that the young 
priests had been driven out of Merida and were to be kept out, 
for there were too many wolves in church garb preying on 
the female flock. 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 33 

A child in carnival attire attracted me. I spoke to him, 
took his picture, and the pleased parents invited me into their 
patio and parlor and showed me flowers and pictures. There 
was a grand piano, I played, then the wife played, and we all 
left good friends. 

There was a grand promenade at noon, evening and night. 
All Merida and his wife, dressed up in their best, rode in car- 
riages and autos up and down one street looking at each 
other and the crowds lining the sidewalks, who in turn stood 
and watched them. Formerly there was great style displayed 
on this carnival occasion. Now if you look too wealthy or too 
well-to-do, Alvarado comes and helps himself to your bank 
roll, and as a result many rich people were riding in hired car- 
riages instead of their autos. It isn't safe just now to parade 
your wealth, for it will attract the covetous eye of the govern- 
ment and be confiscated. 

Later in the afternoon the carriages came and went two 
deep in opposite directions along the main avenue. It was a 
Fifth Avenue drive on a small scale. If the church bells were 
silent, the city belles were loud in clothes. The Paseo dis- 
closed many dark skinned, haired and eyed damsels, who 
darted glances at the spectators and delightedly showed their 
white teeth. We watched the parade from the Hidalgo Plaza 
in front of the Gran Hotel. In our parades we say "hello" 
with hilarious laugh or shout. Here it was solemn as a funeral 
or religious procession. When friends met and wished to rec- 
ognize each other they acted like idiots and deaf mutes, rais- 
ing their hands to their eyes and wiggling their fingers 
around. I let out a husky shout to one of the boat passengers 
and nearly broke up the procession. Meanwhile the people 
on the curbs looked at the show as if it were a circus parade. 
Fathers and mothers thronged the corners, filled the gutters 
and held up their children above the crowd, fighting for a 
good position to see — not an elephant, lion or clown, but 
simply rigs filled with very common folks. 

During the day troops of motley, merry masqueraders, 
grotesquely garbed, pounding drums and carrying banners, 
marched down the streets. All this was but a faint suggestion 
and echo of what we were to see and hear later in Campeche. 



34 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

"FEAST OF BLISTERS" 



THE Feast of Blisters" is another of Yucatan's carni- 
vals. It commemorates the following undoubted 
facts. One Lenten Friday a cowherd saw a tree 
that threw out a bright light. Not being a coward, 
he went up to it, cut it down and took the trunk to the rectory. 
It was piled in a room until one day a sculptor came and 
asked the cura for work. He told him to take the trunk 
and make an image of the Miraculous Conception. The artist 
replied it was more fit to make a crucifix, but was ordered to 
make that also and was shut up in the room with the tree 
trunk. When the cura opened the door next day to see how 
the artist had succeeded, the sculptor was gone, not a block 
or chip of the wood was seen, and there stood the image and 
a perfect crucifix floating upright in the air. This was miracu- 
lous. The image was taken out, set up in the church and 
crowds came to see it. 

All this happened in the year of Our Lord 1651. After 
the image had been worshipped for nine days the church 
burned down. It was a big, hot fire, the woodwork was 
ashes, the stones burned to dust, and all the metals melted, 
but the image was unharmed, merely blistered. If you don't 
believe me, go and see it for yourself. Its marvelous influence 
was now too limited, so it was taken from Ichmul to the cathe- 
dral at Merida in 1656: Here it happened that the image in- 
stantly cured a man of his leprosy, and he was so grateful 
that he built a special chapel for it. Immediately business 
picked up. The image had a larger field of influence and did 
bigger things. It freed the province from an awful pestilence 
and later of famine, yellow fever, locusts, hunger and many 
other ills. After each miracle some new feast day was pro- 
claimed and Pope Clement XI approved and allowed special 
indulgences. The 29th of September was the great day of 
devotion and dedication to the image, and the different guilds 
in Merida vied with each other in their offerings of money to 
the image, so that thousands of dollars were placed to the 
good — of the church. 

This feast, called "La Fiesta de los Ampollos," is now 
generally observed in October for two weeks. As a joy-fes« 




THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 35 

tival and hell-raiser this nine-day feast rivals the Pre-Lenten 
carnival. 

Yucatan is the most fitting place to celebrate this Feast of 
Blisters, whose inhabitants have been blistered by sun and 
slavery in the sisal fields. I missed this blister feast, but had 
several of my own in Merida when I ate my meals, principally 
composed of peppers and hot sauces that blistered my lips and 
throat. 



STRUNG UP 

HE Paseo de Monte jo is a beautiful boulevard and 
rendezvous of the rich. Though the climate is hot, 
high society is very cold in its reception of tourists. 
However, through the introduction of my friend, 
Joseph Alameda, we visited the million dollar mansion of the 
former governor of Yucatan, General Francisco Canton. He 
had recently died and his son kindly showed us all over the 
palace, pointing out and describing the imported, rich, 
carved wood furnishings, tapestries, statuary, paintings, 
armory, library and marble stairway. He led us to the roof 
garden whence we saw a forest of windmills and trees. To 
plant trees here you must first blast out the coral rock, then 
fill in with dirt, and last of all plant your tree. Many of the 
nearby palaces were empty because their owners had been 
compelled to skip out for political reasons. He pointed to 
many mansions that had already been confiscated by Al- 
varado. When we left I thanked him for his kindness and he 
gave me a souvenir autographed book on Yucatan by Char- 
nay, which he himself had translated into Spanish. 

There was some life on the boulevard, but not so many 
people were riding, driving or hanging around as when Alva- 
rado strings up some poor, suspected devil on a big tree. On 
the avenues you find trees and statues, yet Alvarado 's original 
genius goes farther. He makes a gibbet of a tree and hangs 
a man until he is still and statuesque. It is a new and 
strange way to make a thoroughfare attractive. It gives 
passers-by something to look at besides each other, and some- 



36 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

thing to talk about besides the weather. For instance, a 
lover passes by the swinging corpse and says, ''He doesn't 
look nice and fresh now — don't you think, dearie, his face is 
much discolored, and his cheek fallen in, and it is time to 
bury him and get a new one?" A business man says, "Poor 
fellow! Hte isn't worth much now;" a gambler, "I'll bet he 
never expected such a finish;" the politician, "Alas, what are 
we coming to?" the schoolboy, "Gee, he learned an awful 
lesson;" the cleric, "May the saints save us from a similar 
fate;" the undertaker, "I wonder who buries him." All this 
is food for reflection, and for the birds if he hangs there long 
enough. 



AROUND TOWN 



CAFES are numerous where one may get ices and 
drinks. Milk is popular and I tried a tall glass of 
boiled milk. You sweeten it according to taste and 
for flavoring pick up an ink stand of lemon or 
vanilla extract, put a dropper in it, and proceed as if about 
to fill your fountain pen. 

In Yucatan restaurants I paid twenty-five cents for an egg, 
thirty cents for a pat of butter and for other food in propor- 
tion. Shoes, hats and clothing are luxuries which are not to 
be indulged in unless absolutely necessary. 

The Yucatecan likes the movies and there are many of 
them. The peon now makes money enough to come to town 
several times a week. Any film pleases him, for like a child 
he is pleased with a rattle or tickled with a straw. Since 
bullfighting and cockfighting are prohibited he goes out on 
a movie rampage. There was a time when bullfights were 
held in the Circo Theatre and later there were refined dramas 
and operatic concerts. Now there is little high ideal perform- 
ance, and though prices are small, most of the seats are empty. 
Vaudeville is all the vogue and cheap theatres are full with 
their programs of song, dance and burlesque. 

As in Salvador and Costa Rica capitals they have built 
a big theatre much too large for the few who attend it. The 
show place is called Peon Contreras, named after two leading 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 37 

men who died in Mexico City. It is only for show on the out- 
side, cost nearly a million and a half dollars, is built in the style 
of the Italian Renaissance and was devoted to the movies 
while we were there. It is a monument of vanity and extrav- 
agance. We walked all around and through it and climbed 
to the top where we found some fine city scenic effects that 
made up for the lack of show inside. 

It was light in darkness to meet Diaz Canton, the manager 
of the City Gas Co. He was bright not only in business 
ways but socially and religiously as well. He took us by 
auto to the ever well-patronized penitentiary, to a big park 
'with trees, flowers and zoo, and then to the hospital with 
separate buildings for the sexes and each disease. Here 
everything was on a broad and beautiful scale and up-to-date. 
Money is now spent for body and not for souls, for clinics 
and not churches, and the sick are well off. The place is 
always full, and I do not wonder, as it is so much better 
every way and day than the poor patients have at home. 



WILD WOMEN 



NEXT we visited the Ayola Insane Asylum, named 
after the Yucatecan philanthropist who endowed it. 
It is immense in itself and surroundings of flower 
beds and gardens, and everything from bake shop to 
barn was like spotless town. They were building a concrete 
pen for a Mr. Bull. It was a palace compared with some of 
the cane-thatched huts the peons live in. The asylum is a 
bug-house with no bugs. We saw the peacefully and violently 
insane. One caged man swore he was the Kaiser and I 
wouldn't have cared if he had been. I can never live too 
long to regret his mistaken identity. In the twilight this 
house became haunted and spooks seemed to accompany us in 
garden and walk. Once we paused to listen to a love-song 
of a poor demented damsel "wailing for her demon lover." 
She was dressed in white and her black hair streamed down 
her back. There was as much music and sense to me in what 
she sang as some operatic and upper attic music I have 



38 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

heard in concerts, or from moonstruck lovers in the park. 

One room echoed with the cries of a dozen disheveled, 
wild-eyed girls who shrieked like women fans at a ball game 
or Saturday bargain counter. A crazy girl came to me, bare- 
armed and legged like all the other inmates, spoke in soft, 
Spanish, seductive tones and did a little dance. I asked 
Canton what she wanted. He said, "A mouth organ." It 
appears she had been a musician. She illustrated it by run- 
ning her fingers across her lips as if her teeth were the notes 
of a harmonica. Canton promised to get her one. Then her 
face lighted with joy and she bent over and kissed his hand. 
I was glad it was his and not mine, for I am sure it was a 
cold, creepy kiss that would have crawled over my sheets and 
pillow all night in a bad dream. Poor girl, she seemed modest 
and in her right mind compared with what many sane singers 
and dance girls have asked me. The twilight had merged 
into night and I was glad to hasten from this horror-haunted 
home, where the light of reason had failed, to welcome the 
chug of the auto that drowned out wild maniac cries. 



SWEET 



MR. CANTON not only ran the American Gas Co., but 
a range. He had a gastronomic Chinese cook who 
baked white bread and pie for Merida upper crust 
families. After our auto ride and visit he invited 
us to a supper where we were surprised at American bread 
and pie instead of Mexican tortillas and pan dulce. We spent 
the evening at his home. His wife was not a musician but 
some of his neighbors' pretty daughters played the piano. 
Since I couldn't speak Spanish and tell the attractive wife 
and lady visitors how pretty they were and how much I liked 
them, I used the piano as an interpreter, expressing my feeling 
through my fingers. I must have been very sympathetic for 
they said I was "mucho simpatico, " wondering how an 
American could put so much feeling in a piano. Well, I had 
to, that was all I could touch, although as I left, after the 
young lady had played con amore, I pressed her hand with 
a fervent adios. 




MAYAN RUINS 



UXMAL, YUCATAN 





SHOT ON SUSPICION 



YUCATAN 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 39 

WORKING MIRACLES 



WE WENT to one Christian service in this heathen city. 
The Presbyterian mission is doing a big work in a 
small building. The native children sang earnestly 
and seemed greatly interested in a colored chart 
that illustrated the Bible story of the Centurion. I opened a 
Bible and the first vrords I saw there were, "Let there be 
light," and I certainly wished that light might come to 
darkest Mexico. There was a Mexican flag near the pulpit. 
I hoped the flag would soon learn the spiritual lesson, "Ye 
shajl know the truth and the truth shall make you free." 

There was an organ, the children were singing and had a 
blackboard lesson. There were colored lesson maps, mottoes 
and banners on the wall. The girls were bareheaded and the 
women's heads were covered. I saw one woman get up and 
go out to spit. It was a miracle — the most astounding fea- 
ture in the whole service that she should not use the floor 
for a cuspidor. If nothing else is taught this is worth all 
it costs to support this mission. 

Religious and class distinctions are much marked in 
Merida. Like truth, this building was remote and hard to 
find, so it is planned to have a place larger and more central 
and so inviting that the rich may meet with the poor in a 
preaching service at least once a week. Christianity is love 
or nothing, and it will take a lot of love and time before 
the hate of plutocrat and peon is removed. 



CHURCH IN THE LURCH 

HE church opposite the Hidalgo Park has been con- 
verted into a museum. Instead of finding useless 
religious relics and an antiquated theology, one sees 
old Indian relics, pottery, Aztec carvings, orna- 
ments, birds, woods and ores, as he would in an exposition 
building. 

Merida once possessed a familiar and famous Franciscan 
convent. It dated back to 1547. Its wall was 40 feet high, 




40 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

8 feet thick and enclosed 2,000 friars, some of whom, accord- 
ing to their own theology, must now be literally frying on 
the devil's gridiron. The place and people are no more. In 
1820 the order was ordered out and more order and less dis- 
order has been the result. 

One night in a cafe I noticed a native wearing a Masonic 
charm. Of course I was charmed and indicated it. He 
signed me to come over to him and through a mutual friend 
interpreter invited me to attend a meeting and see the 
new Masonic temple which was formerly a Roman Catholic 
church. This Masonic society, at once pious and patriotic, 
standing for light, law, liberty and love, exists here as else- 
where in Latin America, and has done great things for God, 
home and native land in spite of all the clerico-politico, mur- 
derous opposition aimed against it. 

The cathedral was built in the time of Philip III of Spain. 
It is a big pile ai^d cost a pile of money. Columns, roof and 
towers remain, but the high altar, carvings, statues, chapels, 
nave and aisles are gone. It is closed during Sunday and 
the week and none but soldiers are allowed to enter. Early 
one morning I saw the front door open, and looking in diS' 
covered the church was a barracks. An officer was sitting 
by a table making government notes and reports in the place 
formerly occupied as a religious counter for crosses and 
beads. "L" and I didn't look very religious, so he had no 
objection to our entering and looking about. What a fall was 
there, my countrymen! Formerly marvelous wealth and 
adornment, gorgeous ritual, pomp and splendor — now all dark 
and empty, the altar demolished, the pictures, saints, images 
and statues destroyed. Instead of pious, prayer-repeating 
worshippers on their knees, drowsy soldiers were stretched out 
on the floor snoring. Guns were stacked around the massive 
pillars. A guide-book description of the interior of this 
cathedral as it now exists would be an amusing satire. "When 
the people became incensed at the clergy they entered this 
cathedral, desecrated and despoiled the high altar, made the 
church furniture resemble a second-hand furniture store, 
knocked the saints from niches and used their broken arms 
and legs for baseball bats in the plaza. Much else was pub- 
licly burned. During the recent revolution the cathedral 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 41 

was used as a fort; later a school to teach and a hall for 
speeches and banquets; and a siege storehouse for vegetables 
and canned goods when the Yucatecans feared the U. S. would 
intervene after the affair at Carrizal. I saw the great search- 
light on the roof all ready to spot any of our troops who 
might come up from Progreso. 

The Bishop 's Palace next to the cathedral has been torn 
down and is being made into a Palace of Art — the art of 
music, painting, sculpture and oratory where the Merida 
maids and Yucatan youth may learn what David said, "That 
our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth; that 
our daughters may be as corner stones, polished after the 
similitude of a palace." The only marring effect I saw in 
this building was the employment of child labor. Little boys 
scarce ten years old carried burdens of stone and cement 
heavy enough to break their backs. 

''Persecution" is the cry of the now powerless church, 
but what in comparison with their persecution of the peons 
in the last 400 years ! Freedom is not gained by a whispered, 
"If you please," or by perfumed, written notes. Revolution 
is always spelled in blood letters as when the French threw 
off the kingly yoke. 

I learned that the churches in the country districts had 
been changed into schools; that in Merida one had been torn 
down to make way for a public park; another for a students* 
club; another made into a committee room for a bricklayers* 
union. Near the railroad station we entered one church that 
is being used as a storehouse for contraband alcoholic liquors 
since prohibition went into effect. Baseball and theatre signs 
are posted on the big cathedral walls, as well as warnings 
against sanitary defilement. 

DIED GAME 

|T THE REAR of the cathedral a red flag caught my 
eye. It must anger the Papal bull very much, for 
the building from which it floats is dedicated to 
Francisco Ferrer, and is used as a school. 
Ferrer, the Masonic martyr, hated by the Spanish church, 
arrested, lied about, tried by court martial and shot for 




42 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

"founding schools," urged light and liberty in Spain such as 
we enjoy in church and public school, and died saying, "Aim 
straight, long live the modern schools." The echo of that 
speech and shot will yet overturn every altar and the throne 
of Spain. 

"To die game" is to keep one's nerve and spirit to the 
end, and it is this courage and endurance to the death- 
struggle that thrills and throbs and causes the eye to gleam 
and the heart to leap. 

The tree of civilization — of physical, mental and spiritual 
liberty — is not watered by rain but by the tears, sweat and 
blood of prophets, patriots, philanthropists and parents. 

Were St. Paul living today he would write another epic 
of heroism and add to his eleventh chapter of Hebrews the 
many others, "of whom the world was not worthy — who were' 
tortured, not asking deliverance." 

Socrates, whom Plato called the wisest, justest and best 
of all the men he had known, and of whom Cicero said, "He 
called down philosophy from the heavens to earth and intro- 
duced it into the cities and homes of men," was accused of 
not worshipping the gods, of corrupting the youth, and was 
condemned to drink the poison hemlock, but as he watched US 
fatal effect he discoursed on the immortality of the soul. 

Leonidas. the Spartan warrior, famed in song and story, 
with his three hundred band opposed the myriad force of 
Xerxes at Thermopylae, and by his death inspired his com- 
panions to drive back the invaders. He leaves an influence 
through the centuries which makes hearts glow and arms 
grow stronger. 

The Roman sentinel, at Pompeii, stands while Vesuvius 
pours forth mud, gas and ashes, and when all had fled, re- 
mains faithful in death, encased in lava, a statue for all time, 
showing how a Roman soldier did his duty. 

Arnold von Winkelried, the brave Swiss, bares his bosom 
to the Austrian spears and makes way for liberty, crying, "I 
will open a path to freedom — protect, dear comrades, my 
wife and children." 

John Brown, at Harper's Ferry, gives his life a ransom 
for the slave's freedom — kisses the negro baby, mounts the 
scaffold and signs the death warrant of the old South. 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 43 

The soldiers of the Revolution, Rebellion, Spanish and 
Mexican wars gave us our liberties, not paying with cash or 
lands but with home, family and blood which has dyed our 
flag with reddest stripe. 

Vanini, pursued by the savage dogs of the Holy Inquisi- 
tion, because he loved liberty and was brave enough to think 
and talk for himself, goes to the stake smiling, saying, "Let 
us go joyfully to die, as becomes a philosopher." 

Bruno, warring against th<^ lifeless physics of Aristotle and 
opposing the Scholastics in their persecution of Galileo, is 
condemned by an infernal Inquisition which never shed blood, 
preferring to burn the accused to cinders. 

Carl Hans Lody, my personal friend and guide around the 
world, is arrested, tried and shot as a German officer spy in 
the tower of London. After making his peace with God, and 
looking with unbandaged eyes into the muzzles of the English 
rifles, he says, "May my life be honored as an humble offering 
on the altar of the Fatherland." 

Heine sang every note of joy and grief in prose, poetry, 
philosophy and politics while bed-ridden for eight years, nailed 
to the cross of paralysis by spikes of suffering. 

Green, the historian, bravely struggles with hopeless dis- 
ease while he writes his history of England and at death 
leaves his "Conquest of England" to be edited by his widow. 

Stevenson dies in Samoa, after a life of literary work 
between coughing, fever, pain and blood. 

Livingstone, thirty times stricken with fever, and nine 
times seeking the slave-hunters at the head of the Nile, refuses 
to be rescued by Stanley, and far away and alone writes 
with dying hand, "May heaven's rich blessings come down 
on every one who would help to heal this open sore of the 
world." 

Captain Scott, at the South Pole, with snow for shroud 
and ice for monument, writes with freezing fingers and warm 
heart his love to wife and child, his devotion to science and 
native land. 

Goodyear, the discoverer of rubber, thinks and experi- 
ments for 20 years in poverty and hunger and dies with heart- 
ache and in want. 



44 TPIE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

Our forefathers died game in their fight against rude nature, 
savages, flood, famine and wild beast. 

Sailors have gone down with their ships; engineers have 
been crushed at the throttle; experimenting physicians at the 
Panama Canal have been stung to death by yellow-fever 
mosquitoes, proving that progress leaves a blood mark in 
every step of advance. 

Fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, sweethearts and 
friends have denied self and sacrificed daily for others. My 
brother **Dave" rescued his three brothers from drowning 
and then sank down while his soul went up to God. 

The Martyrs in the Coliseum were stoned, flayed, burned 
and fed to wild beasts as a testimony to their spiritual faith. 

Savonarola thunders in San Marco agains tthe corrupt 
priesthood and laity of Florence and fearlessly offers his body 
to the flame of bigoted hate. 

Cranmer translates the Bible, becomes Protestant, is con- 
demned for heresy and treason, through fear recants, but 
when bound to the stake denies his recantation, thrusts 
his right hand into the flame, saying as he held it there, 
"This hand hath offended; this unworthy hand." 

Paul, greater than Alexander, Caesar and Napoleon in his 
influence on the world, though poor, hunted, imprisoned and 
persecuted, fights a good fight and meets his death with 
happy hope of heaven in his heart. 

Jesus, from the stable manger to the cross on the skull- 
shaped hill, planned to meet his trial and fate. Calm and 
courageous, he exhibited no weakness nor hesitancy. He did 
not stumble, faint nor falter on his way to cross, as ignorant 
sentimentalists and superstitious painters would have us 
believe. Discarding angelic help, with the cry of a howling 
hell-mob in his ears, he climbed the Calvary of death and 
gave his life, praying for his ignorant murderers, the repent- 
ant thief and his sorrowing mother. Feeling forsaken of God, 
and dying of thirst, he prayed, "Into thy hands I commit my 
spirit" and came from the dark, where stars are lost, through 
intervening orbits to the Sun of Righteousness which eternally 
shines on Ilim. 

In life, duty and death are synonymous. 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 45 

Moral cowardice is the curse of this century. Mentally 
men will meet problems and physically defend themselves 
against robber attack, but when it comes to political injustice, 
social rottenness, commercial robbery, un-American practises, 
clerical abuses and newspaper conspiracy, they are cream- 
faced, lily-livered and goose-fleshed. 

To die game a man must live game and take his orders 
from Almighty' God in the light of his own conscience, his 
Father's Bible and his mother's Christ. 

In the future, as ever in the past, social, political, scientific 
and religious advance has been born of sore travail of body, 
mind and soul, baptized with tears, annointed with suffering, 
fed with disappointment, boycotted and blackguarded by men, 
but loved and rewarded by God. 



STREET LIFE 



EVERY town has its oldest house. So here, facing the 
plaza, is the famous Montejo house built in 1549 by 
Don Francisco Montejo, who was "granted" the 
privilege from Spain to conquer and colonize Yuca- 
tan. There is an old, odd design of Indian and Moorish stone 
carving above the doorway showing two armor-clad knights 
with cuirass, visor and helmet, tramping and stamping on 
some fallen Indians. However inaccurate the carving may 
be, the fact is true to history. My photo of this building 
shows a tablet with the inscription: "Esta obra mando 
hacerla el Adelantado Don Francisco de Montejo, anno de 
MDXLIX," which means that the Adelantado Don Francisco 
de Montejo caused this to be made in the year 1549. Its cost 
was said to be $14,000, a truly large sum when material and 
labor were cheap. Fickle fate! A man will die for his 
country or an idea and be forgotten — another builds a house 
for himself and is remembered. However, should this house 
perish history will not forget this cutthroat, gold-seeking 
murderer. 

From travelers' descriptions, I imagined Merida's streets 
were clean as those of the "New Jerusalem," or that one 
could sit on the curb and eat dinner on it in preference to the 



46 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

hotels. I found their statements slightly exaggerated. So 
long as Merida has mule trams instead of electric cars, and 
horse carriages in lieu of gas jitneys, I prefer to select my 
hors d'oeuvres from the hotel bill of fare. Nevertheless, most 
of the streets are all right when it comes to angles. Numeri- 
cally they are oddly or evenly named according to the points 
of the compass, though names of prominent men and days 
are now being used in places. Long ago the ignorant Indians, 
who had not studied arithmetic in school, got lost looking at 
the street numbers, so the kind city fathers placed images and 
paintings of birds and beasts at the corners. One might 
judge from the names of the streets that the early settlers 
were "flamingos" and "elephants," but a casual look at the 
inhabitants proves they are descended from a different 
ancestry. 

There are remains of ancient arch gateways at the ends 
of some of the streets that give a picturesque vista. They 
contained, as some do even today, spaces filled with images 
of the Virgin, or some saint looking down on the people 
passing below, who look up in vain for any real help to make 
life better or easier. The spirit of modernism passes this by 
now and the people, flushed with the memory of Carranza 
and Alvarado, who have enabled them to throw off clerical 
chains, are proud to look up to the Arch of the Revolution 
that unites the Palace and Cathedral. This is the true Arch 
of Triumph and a standing warning to any arch plotters 
across the sea. 

From early days the Indians were treated as animals by 
the Spaniards, which may be a reason why they are so cruel 
to their animals. The poor mules are unmercifully loaded 
down and beaten up. One afternoon after it had been raining, 
and the pavement was more slippery than ever, I saw a car 
packed with a carnival crowd. They shouted and laughed as 
the little mules slipped, stumbled and fell up the hilly street 
while the driver lashed them most cruelly. 

Street life is interesting. Now you see an ice-cream vender 
selling his ice-cream in the form of a shaving stick, or a 
Chinese baker carrying a wash-tub full of bread on his head, 
the only "loaf" about for him, for he runs so fast your kodak 
can't catch him. 




THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 47 

Yucatan has more holidays than holy days. It was Feb- 
ruary 22nd and a double gala day to me, for while the flags 
were floating at half mast for Madero, I pulled out my little 
American flag and celebrated the day in honor of George 
"Washington, a birthday and not a death day. 



A SLOW START 

CAME to Yucatan to see the ruins but almost went 
away without seeing them. It is only two hours 
by rail and five more by cart to the crumbled city of 
Uxmal, yet from the work and preparation for the 
trip it looked as if I were going on an expedition into darkest 
Africa. In Merida I met a Mr. Goff who kindly cashed my 
American Express checks, refused by everybody else because 
they did not know what they were. When I told him I wanted 
to see the ruins, he laughed and said, "You wouldn't if you 
knew what you would be up against." Sad but true, people 
who go to see the ruins are ruins by the time they return. A 
Mr. King and others had tried and planned for six days to 
get guides and rigs, but things move slowly in manana-land, 
and the revolution, too, had made mules and horses very scarce 
for tourists. The few left were used in hauling the "green 
gold" henequen from the plantations. 

One man I was to have had for a guide had fallen in love 
with a girl the carnival week before and couldn 't leave her for 
me. Finally Gofl: took pity on me, came to the rescue and 
gave me a full-blooded Mayan Indian clerk in his employ, 
"Gustav" by name. He could talk some English and was 
anxious to see the ruins of his ancestors. He was every inch 
a man to tie to in such a trip — short, swarthy, with heavy, 
black straight hair, dark eyes, broad shoulders, and keen, 
kind and capable. 

It was necessary to lay in provisions or starve, for there 
is no provision made for hotel or house care in the ruins 
themselves. Gustav went to a grocery and bought cheese, 
crackers, several kinds of canned meats, olives and other 
edibles of U. S, A. make at top-notch prices for our picnic 




48 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

lunch in the graveyard of the past. "With thoughts of pto- 
maine poisoning and a possible graveyard in the present, we 
took the train, I mean the train took us, to Muna. 

Nearly all the way we sailed through a green sea of hene- 
quen, and before we arrived the heat of the day was pushed 
up towards blood heat by burning sisal, not in the fields, but 
along the railroad tracks. Our old engine was a wood-burner, 
Avith old-style smokestack, and it threw out a big spark or 
cinder that fell on some stacked sisal by a railroad station, 
resulting in a big blaze. 



NIGHT IN A BENIGHTED VILLAGE 

UNA is a native village with small depot and no bus 
or hotel accommodation. It has about three thou- 
sand souls who live in and around and generally 
stay around outside most of the time working on 
the plantations. We learned this when the man, to whom we 
had a letter of introduction, was not at home, but away on his 
butcher cart. We trudged along the stony and dusty street, 
stared at by dogs, pigs and children, until we came to a 
native plaster hut with a thatched roof. The short, fat mis- 
tress of this manse came out with a "guipo" and smile on. 
She was a Mayan and Gustav soon made an arrangement for 
our entertainment. 

Taking as a motto, ''Make hay and notes while the sun 
shines," "L" and I started on a double quick trot to cover 
the town. The plaza is a big, treeless, grass cow pasture. 
There is a bust of Juarez, the patriot, on a pedestal in the 
center and there are four lean-to lamp posts around it. This 
place is not frequented at night because of darkness and 
slippery cow paths. A large well, with a little stone curb 
about it to keep you from falling in, was of interest. It was 
deep and the girls were hauling up buckets by ropes that 
had made deep ruts in the logs thrown across it. It was a 
long haul, and when made they carelessly spilled half the 
water before emptying it into their jars. Foolish virgins! 

School let out and a group of barefooted boys and girls 
rushed out yelling welcomes to us. The boys began to play 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 49 

baseball and the girls sauntered home. In a comer building 
a few men were playing pool. It didn't look inviting, so we 
headed for the big closed cathedral, after first hunting up 
the man who had the key. It was a mere shell with the 
kernel gone. Everything within had been pulled down, 
smashed or destroyed as if it were another Belgium building. 

At dusk hunger called us to our hut where a lamp threw 
out a gleam of welcome and we entered the little door to the 
one and only room in the house. The table was set and we 
sat around in chairs while the Mayan mistress swung in the 
hammock and gave orders to the barefooted Indian women 
servants, w^ho came in and loaded the table with hills of 
tortillas, lakes of black bean soup, stacks of rice, fried eggs, 
meat, coffee, chocolate and fruit. Not much style or service, 
but plenty of good grub. It smelled and looked so good that 
the dogs came in from the street through the open door, and 
by the lamplight I could see the faces of children peering in 
through the barred windows to see how very hungry and 
human the white folks were. 

After this food exertion we rested a little and fell to won- 
dering where we were to spend the night. There were two 
hammocks in the room, three of us, she, and her husband who 
had not returned. Of course, on a pinch, and it would be a hard 
one, six could sleep in two hammocks, but that would have 
been neither proper nor comfortable. The Yucatan way is 
two in a hammock, head to foot and foot to head like sar- 
dines, with a chance to be asphyxiated and have your brains 
kicked in. During our meal the mosquitoes took two bites 
of us to our one of the food, and almost ate us up alive. 
Things were crowded and there was no room for any sani- 
tary measures. There was no up-to-date lavatory in all the 
city. Highways, by-ways, front and back yards were pressed 
into service at short notice with no posted notices pro- 
hibiting. 

"Wondering whether we would be compelled to sleep with 
the family or other arrivals, we were relieved when Gustav 
came in with two big hammocks, he had rented from a store, 
which we were going to swing in in the schoolhouse. 

On our way to rest we passed a night school, a large room 
in which old men and boys, who had worked all day cutting 



50 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

sisal in the henequen fields, were cutting their wisdom teeth. 
To encourage them we entered. The boy teacher showed us 
the classes in reading and figures, and pointed to the black- 
board with its stanza of poetry which the old boys were 
trying to copy into legible letters with their cramped fingers. 
The school tables were more popular than the pool tables on 
the corner. 

It was so dark outside that without flashlights in hand 
and the stars overhead we could never have navigated without 
shipwreck to our shins and plans. Tam o 'Shanter saw a light 
in the church and we saw one in the cathedral. Whether it 
was a haunting ghost or not we boldly went to the door and 
looking in saw an officer at a desk. Times have changed. 
Instead of the church taking money from the peons, the peons 
were being paid off here by the government for their day's 
work. I am sure the Master, who whipped out the money- 
changers from the temple, would not molest this plan of 
changing money from one hand to the other hand which had 
earned it. There was no midnight mass, just two or three 
gathered together in the name of humanity and honesty. 

Muna's one movie house shows three or four times a week. 
There was nothing this night, for the reel had failed to arrive 
on the train, but next night I saw rockets shot off to inform 
the Indians that the show house had a picture. This was 
equal to any press advertising, and much more spectacular. 
We passed some Indian girls on the way to the theatre. "L" 
flashed out his light and the women shrieked and ran, it was 
so sudden. 

Near the movie was a thatched rustic pavilion with one 
open side and all fenced in like a stock-yard barn. It 
was deserted, but two nights before, during the carnival, it 
had been filled with a herd of merry makers. There was a 
little band-stand and side dressing rooms, a ground floor for 
dancers, tables for lunch and a hedge to keep the crowds in 
and out. 

The citizens of Muna gave us the best they had. While 
there was no hotel or private home at our disposal, with the 
consent of the city fathers we slept in the public school, not 
as tramps or hoboes, but as guests of honor. The hammocks 
were swung and **L" and I climbed in with our shoes and 



THE DEVIL EST MEXICO 51 

clothes on. Gustay lay on the floor. During the night it 
grew very cold within these stone walls. To keep out dogs 
and stray animals we closed the doors, and this preserved the 
bottled air which hundreds of lungs had filled the rooms with 
during the day. One door opened on the patio and the cold 
came in, a near cousin to Jack Frost. Rapid radiation of day 
heat leaves night chill. I learned this Yucatan geography 
lesson here without a book. There may be more uncomfort- 
able things than a hammock, but if so I have never been in 
them. It is hard to get in or to be comfortable when in. I 
was heavy and sunk down in the centre until I looked like 
a butterfly in a cocoon. My hammock was so big and fine 
that I was lost in the meshes, resembling a fat spider in a 
web or a sea monster in a net. It was very plain that I 
was not to the manner or hammock born. How I longed 
for an old fashioned bed as I lay awake and thought of the 
coming day, the children busy at study and play and what 
real work was to be theirs after life's school-day. The alarm 
watch which I had often consulted with flashlight went off at 
2 a. m., the hour to rise and make ready, for the cool of the 
morning is the best time to travel in Yucatan. Being already 
dressed, we went out into the dark and picked our way by 
barking dogs and crowing roosters to our eating hut. Here 
we pounded the door and turned the stout lady out of her 
hammock. She hustled and soon we had eggs, chocolate and 
a good lot of ballast for the jolting trip we were to have that 
day. 



THE ROAD TO RUIN 



SECUNDITA was to be our driver, and by 3 o'clock 
he had rounded up five mules and a two-wheeled 
springless cart, open fore and back, covered on top, 
and with flapping curtains on the side. The bottom 
was braided sisal on which the landlady threw a thin mat- 
tress. Bags and bundles followed and we piled in, placing 
our bones between. It was like a torture chamber of medias- 
val times, so built tha4: you could not stand up or lie down. 
We had to sit opposite each other with backs braced on one 



52 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

side of the cart and our feet pushed hard against the other. 
The driver was far afront with his feet on the cart tongue, 
while the guide leaned on me. A shrill whistle, a crack of the 
whip, a cry of ''inula, mula," and we were off with a rattle, 
clatter, slam-bang of mule feet and big wheels over the 
stones. 

After the driver had the satisfaction of waking up the 
whole town, he went through another village of huts and 
woke it up. Then we went up a big hill and down, over 
tumbled rocks like the path of an avalanche or a glacier 
moraine. At first I wondered if the cart would hold up — 
after half an hour I hoped it would break down. One may 
get a faint idea of the trip and roads by riding up and down 
the steps of the Capitol at Washington in a cheap auto. "We 
were compelled to brace ourselves, for this was no dust road, 
but coral rock bottomed with boulders piled all over it. The 
two great wheels came down like trip-hammers, struck the 
rocks like battering rams, climbed high on one side and 
almost over-balanced. Once they jumped into a rut with such 
a jolt that if we had not kept our teeth gritted hard together 
they would have been knocked out, our cheeks chewed and 
our tongues bitten off. We had to hang on for dear life in 
order to avoid being shot out of the end of the cart, or up 
through the top or through the sides of the flapping curtains. 
All the while our bags and bundles were bounced from side 
to side, and to keep ourselves and them in at the same time 
was no easy matter. It was a winter of discontent with no 
spring on the cart, not even a spring suit between us. 

Five-minutes ride in this conveyance would turn the sweet 
spirit of a saint into the vinegar soul of a sinner. There are 
not enough oaths in a pirate's vocabulary to describe the 
road. The softer you are the harder it is for your feelings, A 
trip to Yucatan's ruins is like carrying coals to Newcastle, 
for the cart carries you in ruins to the ruins. The jolts and 
jars of this cart made Carter's Liver Pills unnecessary. Every 
stony "tear" made the driver laugh. It jars the nerves of 
the living and could jar the nails from the coffin of the dead 
so that the corpse would get up, go to the driver, give him a 
punch with his bony fist and ask him why he was not per- 
mitted to take his last joy-ride in peace. This road would be 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 53 

a good preparation for those who intend to ride motor tanks 
and tractors in the trenches. No more fit punishment in this 
life or the one to come could be invented than to compel the 
makers of this road to make a daily round trip over it. It is 
impassable and impossible. 

Down hill at last and it lasted a long time. Then we 
struck the level plain, but the road was as unlevel as ever, and 
when the mules ran over it we were jarred as roughly as 
when they walked up or down hill. Had it not been for the 
side-curtains on the cart our faces would have been cut, 
lashed, slashed and scratched by the thorny switches of the 
brush through which we were passing. It was a kind fate 
that kept us from going horseback through here. This was 
a torture road as well as tortuous. The jungle reaches out 
its branched hand and lashes the poor sinners on. It could 
make you a Marsyas and flay you alive. 

Falling down a mountain side or bumping the bumps is 
pleasure to this. Our watches fell from their pockets, knives 
and money were jolted out, buttons were wrenched off vest 
and pants and shot us like bullets. Bags biffed and angered 
us. **L's" white pants were torn from Dan to Beersheba, 
From time to time we forced the driver to halt the mules so 
we might count and reassemble our bones, set the disloca- 
tions, rub the sore spots, untie the muscle knots from the 
calves of our legs, get a long breath and offer a silent prayer. 

"Without exaggeration, we resembled survivors of an earth- 
quake, ship wreck and cyclone combined. All the while our 
Mayan driver bounced up and down like a rubber ball, uncon- 
cerned at our discomfort, except when he grinned at us as 
we let out yells and whoops as if we were being murdered. 
I suppose he was happy, too, because he believed the legend 
that the stones were the tears of Clirist who wept at the 
Indians* wrongs. These tears were turned into stones that 
the Spaniards might not follow to rob and kill the Mayas and 
destroy their cities. 

Along the way we passed a few solemn-faced Indians. I 
was surprised to find them carrying guns until I learned a 
man had been recently murdered near by for his money, and 
the people go armed for protection. No one would shoot us 
for such a reason — we looked poor as Job*s turkeys. This 



54 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

reminds me that later, near the ruins, a man and woman 
offered to sell me a big live turkey. It wasn't fried, though 
the sun was hot enough to do the job. I refused to buy it. 

It was 7 A. M., the sun had come up, dried the dripping 
dew that had fallen like rain, and routed a foggy mist that 
one might have drunk for water or pea-soup. Later that day 
at 5 P. M. we met the turkey woman. She had sold her 
turkey and walked thirty miles to do it — over that stone- 
piled road and in her bare feet. 

The hotter it grew the thirstier we were. Our guide had 
a calabash, shaped like a double bellied God or Billiken, that 
he had filled up with water at a hacienda. We lifted it to 
our parched lips and though it was warm, flat and tasted like 
a stew of old rubbers and shoes, it slipped down very 
smoothly and seemed like nectar. One more turn of the road 
and the ancient city of Uxmal burst on our blood-shot 
eyeballs. 



ATTACKED BY TICKS 



TYING- our five mules to the shady limb of an old 
Uxmal tree, we proceeded to tie up ourselves, our 
pants at the ankles and sleeves at the wrist to keep 
out the "pinolillo" and "garapata" ticks. Uxmal, 
in the Mayan tongue, is said to mean "mother of large 
progeny." Here I think it refers, not to the size and num- 
ber of the natives, but to the millions of ticks. If you touch 
a branch driving along the road or walking among the ruins 
you are at once covered with something that resembles a red 
pollen or pepper. "We wore white to keep cool, and for a 
background for the red tick. Brush off at once, for they are 
thousands of ticks who will remind you of hammock mos- 
quitoes and the bugs of some Latin American hotels. They 
bore into you as if they were artesian well-diggers, but they 
are after blood, not water. You must put them to flight at 
once. He or she is the most amazing of all the sects of 
insects. If they once get in you, you must take a petroleum 
or tobacco juice bath. They bite and mean business, and you 
itch as much in seven days as some do in seven years. The 




CLERGY CARICATURED IN CARNIVAL, 
CAMPECHE, MEXICO 




PASSENGER TRAIN BURNED BY BANDITS— NEAR 
VICTORIA, MEXICO 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 55 

Dite of this vicious insect resembles that of a big red ant. If 
you stay long in these Uxmal ruins "some little bug" is sure 
to "get you." 

This is Mr. Bug's plan. He first discovers you and the 
spot he wishes to attack. Then he sticks his two proboscii 
into you and works his mouth between until he bites in deep. 
Don't pull him out, just leave his head in and cut him in half 
with a knife or scissors. This is a delicate operation, since he 
is almost invisible. If aU goes well, and the operation is a 
success, in a day or two he will be so lonesome for his absent 
body that he will proceed to use what brains he has left and 
come out in search of it. Should you rashly pull out his 
head you may expect to be rewarded with a festering, fever- 
ish sore. 

We saw birds and butterflies rainbowing in the sun; lazy 
lizards crawling in the heat; inguanas blinking on stone 
walls, with mouth wide open for flies; poisonous snakes, not 
only carved on walls, but gliding through the grass. How- 
ever, the garapata are the most numerous and active inhabi- 
tants of this dead jungle city. Little is known of Uxmal 
Mayan stone antiquities, but I know this much of its an- 
"tick"quity. 



A PYRAMID CLIMB 

I^XjUR next step was to climb the small, steep, stone 
I ^7 J steps to the top of the ancient pyramid which rose 
I^^^O in front of us. It is so steep that heavy iron chains 
Irr^nll have been let down from the top that you may 
climb hand over hand in safety. A single misstep would let 
you tumble down in a way to break your neck as surely as if 
you had been one of the religious victims legend tells about, 
who, after being sacrificed on top of the pyramid, were given 
a high-priest kick and hurled down a hundred feet till they 
came to a dead stop. It is only 100 steps up, but it seemed 
like 300 by the time we reached the top. Nature has car- 
peted this stone staircase with yellow grass and vines. Like 
a fly I walked over the face of the pyramid, which was rough, 
old, wrinkled by time and whiskery with wavy grass. Its face 



56 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

was sadly in need of a shave, and one who climbs here has 
a close shave to get up and down without injury. 

It grew hotter every second. It was only 9 o'clock and 
we had done seven hours' work. We were almost tired out 
before starting to see the ruins. Unlike ruins in other 
countries, the hardest work was to get to them. But 
why come unless you dare everything? At this pyramid of 
sacrifice it was worth the sacrifice of time and comfort to 
get on top, see the view and feel the stiff cool breeze that was 
strong enough to blow the ruins on you, or you off the ruins. 
One imagines he is on the bridge deck of a ship, with a 
smooth sea of brush below him stretching away to the semi- 
circling shores of distant hills, while the native-made mounds 
and ruins scattered about look like old derelicts. 

These local Maya habitations have modern names, the 
originals being lost, if there were any. The names are mis- 
nomers and the walls are disfigured by tourist idiots who 
have scrawled their initials and names on them. They are 
as illegible as the cryptic hieroglyphic ornamentations, and 
far less artistic. "The House of the Dwarf" is situated on 
top of the pyramid. I am sorry if Mr. Dwarf had to climb 
these steps every day after coming home from work. The 
occupant should have been a giant wearing seven league 
boots so as to make the v/hole pyramid in half a step. I 
wonder who the architect or contractor was. All the build- 
ings are on elevations, but have no elevators. He surely had 
a picnic of a time up here on this pyramid that dwarfs all 
other buildings. His house is small, 70 feet long and 12 feet 
deep, when you compare it with its hill and rock pile 
foundations. 

We rested in the small rooms and wished the walls could 
break their stony silence and tell of doings and carryings on 
there. In vain we applied onr lingual talent on hieroglyphs 
that the author must have written in a nightmare ; marvelled 
at mosaics; stared at sculptures. As a good Mason I went 
through the Maya arch built without a key stone, an arch 
as unique in its way as the Roman arch. From this elevated 
position the dwarf could look down on "The House of Nuns." 
Perhaps the dwarf's house was built as a private observa- 
tory, and though we have no records of the dwarf's observa- 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 57 

tions they may have been as interesting as David's of 
Bathsheba. 

The descent was not easy but difficult and dangerous. 
However, I was a good Shriner and hung to the chain rope, 
feeling I had reached the Mecca of my hopes with no Nemesis 
of accident. 



"HOUSE OF THE NUNS" 

TIhE old "House of the Nuns" is overturned, and 
J Hamlet's advice, *'Hie thee to a nunnery," is obso- 
lete. The Mexicans or Yucatecans won't stand for 
it. Nunneries are in ruins here, as they should be 
everywhere, because there is no warrant for them in sense or 
Scripture, reason or Revelation. This quadrangular building 
is erected on a three-tiered terrace. It is made of cut lime- 
stone and is light brown. The stone is supposed to have been 
cut with tools made of hardened copper. We stumbled over 
debris, slipped on polished stones, tripped in tangled vines 
and ruined a new pair of shoes in half an hour in wander- 
ing through the immense patio. The wall sculptures were 
very interesting. There were many meaningless mosaics 
and bas-reliefs, though we easily recognized the squares, cir- 
cles, broken images and gigantic serpents. Most of these 
facades are defaced, overgrown with plants and decorated 
with creepers. The many little prison-cell-like rooms, open- 
ing not outwards but into the inside court, suggested the 
questions when, who, why? Method in madness the artist 
sculptor may have had, but it is as difficult to grasp as the 
cubist painter's idea now. There is no consecutive design, 
just one block of idea piled on or pushed next to another in 
endless line, giving a general look of barbaric splendor. 

The whole building looks like a war-riddled ruin. The 
angles and shadows are softened by Nature's vegetation orna- 
mentation. The big triangular Maya arch is well-preserved 
and makes as striking an entrance as the gateway, in the old 
Jerusalem wall, to Solomon's Quarries. The classic serpents 
seized Laocoon and his sons, but here I saw two large stone 
serpents trying to strangle a piece of statuary and eat a- 



58 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

hieroglyph. Perhaps the snake contortion was caused by 
devouring a hieroglyph and being unable to digest it. On the 
wall there is a sculpture of a man, maybe some Romeo, who, 
on climbing over the wall, was petrified with fear at seeing 
this serpent. Of course, in the "House of the Nuns" there 
would be a man, but he is stone and mutilated. 

Antiquarians have not decided what this building was. 
I am not sure myself, except that these scientists seem very 
"archeillogical" in their speculations and deductions. It 
may have been a harem for women ; a stable for horses ; a 
palace of a king; a temple of a priest; a prison for bad 
priests; a flat apartment with kitchenettes for young mar- 
ried couples or old maids and bachelors. No matter, time 
will not tell, flesh hearts are dead and stone lips silent. The 
natives have swiped the stones and curios for their bams and 
houses and sold them to tourists and museums. 

The jungle is burying the skeleton of this dead city. Its 
sign language is dead, and the key which could unlock its 
sepulchre inscriptions has not been found. At least, I looked 
all around the stones and in the grass and was unable to dis- 
cover the key. I fear the man who carried it was careless — 
he should have had a key-ring, or he might have hung it on 
the large stone hook designs on the comer of some of the 
buildings. These strange sculptures look like the prow of an 
ancient sailing vessel, a hammock hook for a giant, or an 
interrogation mark to the question, "What do you know about 
this place or the people anyway?" 



UXMAL'S GOVERNOR 



FTER this long stay in the Nuns' House it was quite 
time to make a call at the "House of the Governor." 
Taking my bearings, I sailed through a sea of plants 
and bushes until I saw the Parthenon-like palace of 
the governor, prominently placed and well-preserved. It 
stands on tumbled-down, bush-grown terraces and shows sad 
need of a royal care-taker. Were his royal nibs alive today 
I feel sure he would be broken hearted to see his estate in 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 59 

such sad ruins. Perhaps he died too suddenly to make a will 
with provision for the upkeep of the place, or if he left money 
for it, some boodlers probably broke the will and had the 
appropriation directed principally into their own pockets. 

I clambered up the terraces by means of ladders made of 
young trees, with branches for the rounds — the stone steps 
had long ago crumbled under the heel of time. The day was 
hot, I was heavy, the ladders rickety and I felt like a burglar, 
criminal, or old warrior scaling the ramparts of a besieged 
city. 

Up at last and in front of the palace. The palace is over 
three hundred feet long, about forty feet deep and twenty- 
five feet high. The stone building rises plain for ten feet, 
then comes a strip of wide cornice, and from there on to the 
top one finds a mass of sculpture that rivals a Turkish rug 
pattern. It is a maze of amazing design. To think it, make 
it, put it together is like working a funny block puzzle. The 
entire sculpture is a puzzle, the game being to find what it 
means, I grew warm at the thought even though I was sur- 
rounded by a "frieze." 

There is a roof garden here now, whether the boss had 
one or not, that Nature made of wild flowers, vines and weeds. 
Here birds sing and butterflies flit, dancing to the wind's 
music, just as if it were a real roof garden. The large rooms, 
their number and arrangement, led me to believe the Gover- 
nor had many male and female servants, or both, to do his 
bidding. Now all that flit around are the bats, and accord- 
ing to native tradition, ghosts. My guide said no Mayan 
native would sleep in these ruins at night for they were 
haunted, and the ghosts of former occupants would return 
and grab them and anything they might possess. Maybe, but 
the only proof I saw of any occupancy was some empty cans 
and beer bottles. Evidently some ghosts had been here 
recently on a picnic and had a very good time. 

As I stood here I wondered who the Governor was, how 
he stole the election and the people's money, what deals he 
put through, what graft he raked off for this many million 
dollar palace, or whether he forced his slaves to build it for 
nothing but their scanty board. "Whichever way you look at 
it, he had a splendid view and a high old time. Think of the 



60 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

formal meetings, receptions, banquets, drunks, flirtations, 
escapades and all those privileges vs^hicli come from political 
office. The Governor's House is in ruins now, but I know of 
some States that would be glad to put it in repair and send 
their beloved governors here for a life-vacation with the com- 
panionship of lizards, snakes and solitude. Lest we forget, 
let me say this so-called "Governor's House" may only be 
so in name. Who knows, perhaps it was his Private Sec- 
retary's. 



RUIN RUMINATIONS 

TJHE "House of the Turtles" is located near the 
I "House of the Governor," and is thought by some 
learned scholars to have been the royal kitchen. 
Other scientists say it was so named from the row of 
sculptured turtles on the top cornice of the building, while 
Professor Surmise declares that this was the place where the 
highest grade of Mayan soup was manufactured. 

"The House of the Doves" received its name from roof 
formations that at a distance resemble dove-cotes or pigeon- 
houses. To me the serrated ridge-points resembled the back 
of a big serpent lifted up over the green of the jungle. How- 
ever, in the absence of any reliable authority for the name, 
the iDuilding was here and we went up to it, saw the row of 
holes and perforated gables, pigeon-holes as it were, which 
contained no documentary evidence, one could swear by, as to 
the use of the building or its name. 

The guide insisted on showing us what proved to be a 
tree-covered hill. Man made the hill and nature made the 
trees. I asked the name of the mound and he said there was 
none. I was so hot, tired and scratched that I gave it one, but 
it is omitted for the type-setter wouldn't set it up because it 
upset his scruples. 

The "House of the Old Woman" was pointed out to us 
in the distance. It was so far away and broken down in 
appearance that I said I wouldn't go there if there was a 
young woman in it to fan my face and feed me ice-cream. 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 61 

'Twas high noon and time to eat. There was no spread- 
ing chestnut tree with shade, so we pushed back to where 
the mules and cart with food awaited us. No bandits had 
disturbed it, but we found thousands of ants, gi-ants, which 
disputed our right and left us no peace. Roughly brushing 
them away, we opened canned stuff and there in the scanty 
shade of the cart, at the foot of the pyramid and near the. 
feet of the mules, we filled our aching voids. 

After a sleepy sun-bath, for we were so weary that we 
were too exhausted to seek a shady spot, we took a final view 
and some more photos and left. There were no fond fare- 
wells. We had come and seen enough monuments of this dead 
past, and had tramped all around without the interference 
of any police or signs which read, "No admittance" — "Keep 
off the Grass." 

These Mayan premises have given rise to many -false 
premises and the ruins indicate the monumental ignorance of 
tramp tourists and sedate savants. Who built these Uxmal 
structures, when or why, no foreigner knows and no Yuca- 
tecan cares. Had it not been for John L, Stephens, who not 
only discovered so much here but described it so well, these 
ruins would probably remain unknown, unvisited and unsung. 
One thing is certain that J. L. S. put them on the map so we 
could find them. 

Though these ruins cannot compare in size, splendor, sculp- 
ture, beauty, breadth, etc., with much I had seen in Egypt, 
Greece, Rome, Java, India and Peru, they take the palm for 
being the most ruined. As Yucatan iconoclasts had recently 
smashed the images in the city churches, so Time, the great 
iconoclast, has leveled these Mayan structures. 

Today I have a very definite idea of this trip, some very 
clear photos and have tried to outline my impressions. But 
what are my poor efforts compared with the following lucid, 
straightforward statement by one who lived near here, and 
has so admirably summed up all that has thus far been known, 
said, written and sung of these Mayan rains: 

"We purposely omit going further into the description, as 
to do so would be to draw too largely on the imagination, in 
trying to describe what is, or rather what was to be seen, as 
too much has gone to decay, to enable one to clearly repre- 



62 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

sent, what all originally meant, and with respect to other 
sculptures, it is distinctly best for each- person, for so-called 
student, to form his own impressions, as one person's views of 
the matter, are about as reasonable as another's, it is per- 
fectly impracticable for a thousand and one subjects to be 
described, leaving it absolutely essentially that those inter- 
ested in the study, should make a personal inspection of the 
ruins, and arrive at his own conclusions." 

Mirabile dictu! This reads as easy as the hieroglyphs on 
the ruins themselves. 

Chichen-Itza divides ruined honors with Uxmal in respect 
to its church, temple of tigers, nunnery, observatory, sepul- 
chre, sacrificial temple, stone heads, pottery and idols, and 
sacred cenote where the beautiful girls and war prisoners are 
said to have been thrown. 

If Uxmal and Chichen-Itza are not enough for ruin-hunters, 
or if any of them survive and want more, they may take their 
pick and break their neck, leg or jaw on the following: 

Kanichkakmo, Oxkutzeab, Yacatzib, Ytsimpte, Zubilnocac, 
Kabahancan, Yaxche, Yakalxio, Xchmool, Bolonchenticul, 
Chunj^axnie, Huntichmul, Ichpich, Mulultzekal, Xcalupococh, 
Xcanalchen, Xlap-phak. 

No, reader, this type is not pied. These are just a few 
of many Mayan ruins. What a paradise for a lexicographer! 
It is a sad fact that the great Noah Webster, who wrote an 
early and original work entitled, "The Dictionary," went 
insane. Lucky for us he never went to Yucatan for verbal 
inspiration for he might have added a supplement to his 
dictionary that would have made us all crazy. 

We had to cut Chichen-Itza; out of our itinerary for 
there was no time to go there, and if there had been, I was 
so ruined at Uxmal that I never would have lived to tell 
the tale. 

Leaving the ruins, we stopped at a big hacienda, an oasis 
for shade and drink in a sisal desert. We drove through 
the big arched gate and unhitched the mules that filled up 
on water and ran and rolled in the big front yard as if in 
a circus. They became so lively that it was difficult to 
catch and hitch them up. We, too, were thirsty and wanted 
a drink, so we went up to the big house with its long, 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 63 

arched porch; climbed the steps guarded by the Uxmal 
double-headed tiger; ate oranges and drank from the deep 
well; saw the hollow-log bee-hive made of short logs with 
plastered-up ends and piled like cordwood; watched bees, 
busy and not bothersome, for they have no stingers; and 
looked at the Indian servants as quiet and still as the big 
iguanas that were taking siestas on the porch. Much rested 
and refreshed we entered our coffin cart and started home, 
wiser but sadder and madder as the big cart wheels creaked 
out from the axle a canto of cruelty, "I'll break your 
back, I'll break your back ere you get back." "L" reached 
Merida with his pants ripped in true Rip Van Winkle style, 
and creased as if Rip had slept in them twenty years. He 
used his two kodaks to hide exposures. 



ON A YUCATAN TRAIN 

N YUCATAN one cannot rely on anybody when it 
comes to time. You need an alarm watch if you 
intend to make an early train. The train to Cam- 
peche left at 6 a. m. We asked the hotel guard to 
wake us, but he didn't, for we later found him asleep at the 
foot of the stone stairs guarding the front door. We rose 
at 4:30 to dress, wash and pack, but there was no light in 
the room or on the streets. We groped around to find our 
clothes, wash-basin and valises and learned the meaning of 
the lines, "The darkest hour of night is before the dawn." 
Our flashlights came to our rescue, but not before we had 
acted out Mark Twain's experience in the dark room of a 
German hotel. 

Once outdoors we hacked our way through the thick 
darkness, bumping into a few people straggling home from 
the carnival. The depot was a gloomy affair. I had the 
name of the train, town and time written on a card by the 
hotel proprietor. I shoved it into the little window of the 
ticket-taker. This sounds simple, but it was difficult to do 
on account of the beggars who stood on either side of me 
with outstretched, dirty fingers. He wrote the price of the 




64 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

ticket and I paid him. When the train was leaving I found 
I had been charged $1.25 in excess. I mentioned this to an 
American, Mr. Briggs, who was on the train, and he told 
me he had been "done" the same way, except that the 
agent had simply charged him an extra seventy-five cents. 
This is the way. The ticket-agent sizes up the foreign pas- 
senger by his size and appearance and adds the amount 
he wants for his own personal graft. The line was a narrow 
guage one, but the agent was too broadly dishonest to make 
me start with pleasant feelings — feelings that grew worse as 
the sun and dust came up and the little, wood-burning, 
smoking engine jerked us along in the old second-class car 
by scrubby hills which are mountains to these people. 

Natives were getting off at their home towns for the car- 
nival. Such funny towns, with thatched roofs and plastered 
sides ; long dusty roads and white stone fences ; piles of engine 
fuel heaped at every station ; backyard views of native houses ; 
women washing and making tortillas; and men smoking and 
lazily looking on with approval. There were sisal plantations 
whose henequen plants looked like rows of gigantic pineapples. 

After five hours of heat, made more disagreeable because 
it was necessary to close every window to keep out the 
dust, we saw the sea through the wilted palms and entered 
Campeche, 90 miles southwest of Merida. The Mestizos 
think this train ride is better than Elijah's chariot ride to 
heaven, so they save and spend their money to make the 
trip for the mere "pleasure" of going and coming. To a 
civilized man it is Hades on wheels. 

"When we crossed the boundary line between Yucatan and 
the state of Campeche, the quiet, well-dressed men in our 
car, who had been forced to a state of dry content with 
beer, began to show signs of life. They stopped at the Cam- 
peche stations and returned with hands and pocketfuls of 
bottles of the strongest liquor that is prohibited in Yucatan. 
They drank for self, to and with each other, sang, spoke, 
laughed, howled and drank some more. There was so much 
of good spirits in the car that we unconsciously felt some of 
the intoxication. They were after a good time and left 
Yucatan to find it. 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 65 

CAMPECHE 



THE station of Campeche, the capital, was like an old, 
wooden, river boathouse. Here they not only take 
your baggage but your temperature. We stood in 
line and the officials jabbed the temperature tubes 
in our mouth. When the officials decided we were not liable 
to infect their town with yellow fever, they asked our names, 
nationality, etc., and admitted us to the freedom and priv- 
ileges of the city. How to get there was the question, for 
we were miles from it. We waited in the heat half an 
hour for a bus. Finally one appeared covered with tinsel 
paper decorations and ribbons on the head of the horse and 
hat of the driver. It was carnival day and the driver de- 
manded five dollars to take us to the hotel. Since the depot 
was at the end of the mule-tram line we decided to wait 
for a car, and wait we did. This line only runs to the depot 
when the train comes in. We piled in, many hung on the 
inside and the outside, and the conductor forced some to get 
off because the mules couldn't pull the car. This was bad 
for it was the only car to town, and those who had to walk 
were ready to fight with tongue and fist. Valises were 
charged extra in this combination of passenger and express 
car. 

I hung on the outside and kept my head inside to prevent 
being sunstruck, while I made my feet and body small as 
possible to avoid having them crushed by houses and curbs 
that projected dangerously near the tracks. The streets 
were narrow, it was high noon and high carnival. Suddenly 
we stopped, for just ahead was a great crowd under an 
awning stretched across the street. This wasn't the end of 
the line, but the car couldn't pass, so we got off with bags 
and umbrellas and made a centre rush through the crowd. 
This was carnival day when everything goes except what is 
necessary, which is side-tracked and still. Carriages were 
mixed up in the crowd and everybody on foot and in the 
carriages was assaulting each other with showers of con- 
fetti. It was a howling, happy mob. We pushed through 
with the help of our American friend Briggs, who guided us 
to the Nuevo Hotel Betancourt overlooking the old city 
wall and sea. 



66 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

A VILE INN 



ONLY a stretch of language and imagination could 
call it a hotel — as for "nuevo," new, that adjective 
had long since fallen into disuse. A bare-legged, 
chambermaid boy showed us our room. Then he 
swept all the dirt on us and brought in a wash-basin, and 
some old towels supposed to be clean, but caked with mud. 
I looked at the mattress and it resembled a lava bed, hilly 
and lumpy, and it was just as soft. There were no sheets 
or pillows, yet it was covered with a blanket of grey dust 
from the street. The best thing was the view from the 
balcony of a dimpled, lazy sea, a few sails, an idle wharf, a 
fort just across the street with Spanish turrets and some 
vultures perched on the wall, winking at each other and 
looking wickedly at us as if to say, "I can see your finish. 
You can't live over there very long and we'll get your meat." 
I left the balcony for fear my weight would break it and 
drop me to the sidewalk. 

The hotel had a patio, and since we were upstairs, we 
were in a position to get all the vile smells of the cooking 
and garbage heap, and see the piled up dirty clothes and 
unattractive servants. Like the usual Latin hotel, sanita- 
tion was of least concern and the last thing thought of. The 
lavatory stench arose above all the surroundings and smelled 
to heaven. However dark the night, I always found this 
hotel by following my nose. 

The hotel's four dining tables were placed in the passage 
way. After a dinner of shrimps, shark-meat, rice, beans and 
bread we sauntered out. Over the main entrance I spied 
a Spanish sign, "Baths for thirty cents." Any man wno 
stays here for one night will need one at least. Let me illus- 
trate the progressive push and punctual spirit of this town. 
Though I stopped two days at the hotel, it was not until I 
was leaving that my name was chalked on the blackboard 
register. It was well, however, for the people who usually 
call on strangers here were of a class I did not care to meet 
— thieves and courtezans. 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 67 

FIRECRACKER FIENDS. 



^ 



LONG the water front there was a little plaza in 
ruins. The statues were overturned and the wall 
seats tumbled over. This was not due to an earth- 
quake but to a recent revolution. The soldiers had 
mutinied and driven the governor out of the state, but he 
had returned, put the rebels against the wall and silenced 
them. 

The main plaza was the centre of carnival life. The can- 
tinas were as full as the people in them. Our two kodaks 
attracted the crowd and they at once surrounded us and 
began to throw lighted firecrackers that exploded on our face 
and neck. I didn't care to lose my eyes or good clothes, and 
started to get away. This made bad worse and I conceived 
the idea of taking their pictures to keep them still. Their 
leader was drunk, but delighted, and made his crowd line up 
and stand for it. This left a wide space between us, and 
with this start we snapped the kodak and escaped. 

At the fort we met a dozen soldiers on dress parade with 
bare feet, straw hats and white suits, and cartridge belts 
slung over their shoulders. I asked the officer for permission 
to take a snap shot at them for fear they might take a 
rifle one at us. He smiled, lined them up, we fired and this 
broke the monotony for them and us. Both sky and sea 
celebrated the Campeche carnival by being decked out at 
sunrise and sunset in their brightest colors. 

From two to four o'clock the carnival crowd was resting 
and preparing for evening attack. We had no time to rest 
and strolled around. We found a church that had been 
made over into a school to illumine the darkened minds of 
the children who knew little but catechism. Significantly 
on the tower of the building there was an improvised light- 
house illustrating the scripture, "Let there be light." As 
the weather was warm and the water was fine, there were 
many men and boys swimming on the beach in suits that 
suited them — plain bare skin. 

About four-thirty the quiet was broken by shouts, music 
and a cannonade of crackers, and we started out to see the 
fim in the plaza. On the way from the beach we noticed 



68 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

two mule carts filled with men who had gathered piles of 
slimy seaweed and there were other carts filled with talc 
powder. I wondered what this was for and soon learned. 
When the mob saw a cart approach, it rushed out, seized the 
mules and rained exploding firecrackers on the driver and 
those with him. The army mule was in his element. He 
pushed ahead with the crackers shooting over his ears and 
jumped when some mischievous boy put a pack under his 
harness or tail. The men on the cart resisted and fought, 
shielding their eyes with one arm, using the other to throw 
flour and filth into the crowd, or to pick up packs of exploding 
crackers and throw them back into the faces of the men who 
threw them. Shirts and pants were blackened and burned 
full of holes or nearly off. A few swells wore good clothes 
and Panama hats regardless of results. The majority were 
barefooted, wore cheap pants, undershirts and slouch hats. 
Some were armed with a bedroom utensil which they wore 
as a helmet. Others used tortoise shells for shields. We 
watched the crowd haul one man off his cart and drag him 
through the streets while firing crackers at him. It was a 
Walpurgis night, hobgobblin, hoodlum affair. 

Young girls and women were either on the balconies above, 
ranged round the plaza, or standing tiptoe behind the high 
iron fence watching the fight. The drunken leader I had 
seen in the morning was again busy. He was bad and brave. 
He sneaked up behind them in the plaza enclosure and set 
off the crackers under their skirts. Like a mouse, a fire- 
cracker is a very terrible thing to ladies and they fled to the 
church for a sanctuary. He v/as the chief devil of this infernal 
carnival. 

Campeche's cathedral was big enough but there was no 
time for religious devotion. The Devil was enthroned out- 
side and one of his imps, in the form of a drunken masque- 
rader, offered to take me in the church and to the top of 
the tower to see the cit3^ I gave him a "Get behind me 
Satan" and left him. 

During the cracker fight the street car service was sus- 
pended for two hours and passengers and pedestrians took 
to the side streets. At dark everything stopped from exhaus- 
tion, accident or because the city was poorly lighted. The 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 69 

following afternoon was the last day of the carnival and 
wilder than ever. You may imagine my surprise when I saw 
an American at the head of this fiend brigade. He was a Mr. 
Davis from Virginia. He came to me and asked why I didn't 
put on an old suit of clothes and join the gang, saying it 
wasn't safe to be about with good clothes. He promised to 
keep his crowd from burning them off if I would go to the 
hotel and put on an old suit. I tried to keep them from 
throwing crackers by explaining these were the only suits 
we had brought along with us, but they laughed and began to 
chase us. The one chance to get away from them and the 
town was to find a street ear, and as we made for it we 
looked up and found nice ladies and men in the balconies 
looking down on us. With the crowd on the walks and in 
the plazas and carts they gazed at us as if we were objects 
of amusement, like bulls in the ring or martyrs in a Roman 
arena. They laughed, applauded and shrieked ''Gringo," as 
we were chased from one end of the plaza to the other. It 
was amusing for them but not for us. It was hot, I weighed 
two hundred and attempted to outrace the pursuing mob, 
for I was not anxious to have my eyes burnt out or my 
clothes burnt up. I spied a street car just ahead and ready 
to start. It was full, but "L" and I leaped on and hung to 
the back platform rail. Mules are always slow and never go 
where, and only occasionally when, you want them to. The 
con pulled the bell, the driver said "Mula," lashing them 
with whip and tongue, but they did not stir. During the 
carnival the street car is believed to be a sanctuary of refuge, 
an isle of safety, but not for gringoes. As we stood there we 
made a fine target for their laughs and firecrackers. Not sat- 
isfied with this, a cart full of hoodlums drove by, stopped and 
covered us with flour, filth and seaweed, making the hit of 
the performance. I prayed for resignation, smiled like a 
Christian martyr and stood ready to die, when the mules 
suddenly decided to move. The car started and we made our 
exit 'mid the wild hootings of the town. 

Later Mr. Davis told me this was a quiet carnival com- 
pared with those of preceding years on account of the in- 
creased cost of confetti and crackers. He had spent $60 in 
U. S, money and remarked that the poor had saved up their 
hard-earned money and spent most of it for the blow out. 



70 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 



MASQUERADERS 



BANDS of masqueraders trooped throgh the streets. 
One man had on a bear costume and his master led 
him around. When he reached the plaza the crowd 
attacked him, tore off his costume and left little on 
except his hide. Another animated throng bore banners with 
"Vive" this and "Vive" that. They were all togged out 
like Solomon Islanders. Their faces were black, and to imi- 
tate bushy hair they wore big, black sea-sponges strapped to 
the top of their heads. Some had wreaths of flowers on their 
hats and others, dressed in skirts, imitated women. A few 
had Yankee Doodle plug hats painted with stars and all were 
loaded with clothes though the thermometer was up to 100 
in the shade. 

Men who looked like chimney sweeps, or as if they had 
slept in the Betancourt hotel, made music with guitars, bones 
and drums. They sang, danced up and down with a wiggle 
and jiggle, acting out pantomime like a minstrel show. They 
sang, sweat and swayed with joy to themselves and others. 
A clown and clowness acted the part of lover and swain and 
husband and wife in droning monologue. I didn't under- 
stand it, but the crowd did and roared with glee. 




CARICATURED CLERGY 

HE only clergy I saw on the streets in Campeehe 
were in caricature. The cathedral here holds a 
quiet servivce, for times have changed. Formerly 

church and state were one, but now they are several 

things and pretty widely tied apart. Instead of the day 
when processions were on the streets and sidewalks, man 
and beast were crowded to one side, and every one was com- 
pelled to bow and kneel at the procession of the Host, the 
time has come when the laity have their rights and the right 
of way. No longer do they bend the knee, bow the head or 
take off the hat, but applaud and caricature the things they 
were once compelled to revere. 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 71 

We were drawn into a whirlpool of mad mirth. "We saw 
two men in mock garb of clerical paper cap, lace-trimmed 
stole and surplice and rosaries on their necks made of rotten 
lemons and tomatoes, to which there was attached a large 
bamboo cross. The attendant carried a big cowbell which 
he violently rang and large scrap book to represent a missal. 
Both wore carnival masks with long red noses. Both mum- 
bled prayers, stretched out their hands in blessings, 
kneeled, postured and prayed. They took the prize over all 
other masqueraders in the crowds and cheers that followed 
them. 



CONFETTI 

HE proper thing to do carnival morning is for the 
boys and men to get their girls and give them a 
drive in a rude mule cart covered with a small 
canvas awning and decorated with paper flags and 
palms. The girls made a glorious contrast decked out in 
their best and brightest colored dresses. There was a long 
parade of them and they drove up and down the streets 
for hours bombarding each other and us with confetti. On 
one street corner we rested and took refuge. A kindly 
owner came out with chairs, invited us to rest, and in broken 
English entertained us and offered us a drink. I politely 
refused, but took some camphor to moisten and dry my lips 
which had been sun-blistered. 

At night Campeche is dark as Erebus — only one little light 
for every two or three squares. This is a good way to keep 
people off the streets. I wonder how they spend the evening 
indoors, where it is just as dark. Do they go to bed or 
read raised letters like the blind? I fear the town is as 
dark intellectually as it is materially. 

One night our rest was disturbed by the band in the plaza 
and to escape we took the car to the end of the line to seek 
other sights and sounds. At a carnival booth, instead of an 
ice-cream soda as a thirst-quencher, we ate crushed ice 




72 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

papaya. An old man had directed us to a stand where his 
pretty daughter was standing mixing fruit drinks. He 
rubbed his stomach to indicate that the papaya drink was 
good. It took a long time to make but gave me a chance to 
smile at the girl and be sweet while she mixed the sugar in it. 



NATIVE DANCES 



AFTER smacking our lips, not hers, we entered a little 
park where the peons Avere crowding into a large wood 
building called the "Nuevo Circo Theatro." It had 
a tin roof, two lions on the side of the entrance and 
a prosaic statue of a native holding a spear over the door. 
Paying a dollar each we entered. The price entitled us to 
the ground floor where benches were arranged on the sides 
so we might sit and watch the dancing in the centre of the 
room, or ask the girls who came in, or those sitting around, 
to dance with us. The balcony seats were cheaper but the 
holders could only see, not dance. We sat with the men on 
one side while the women were opposite us. 

Alas, the band we thought we had escaped, entered the 
room, marched to the stage and was soon busy. A half- 
soused condition moved them to force from their poor instru- 
ments the most hideous, horrible, head-splitting, heart-break- 
ing sounds ever heard outside the region Dante made famous. 
There was more music in a laughing jackass, braying 
donkey, screeching owl or chattering monkey than in them. 
This band of musical pirates, that wrecked the high Cs, 
should disband. Idea of time and tune they had not, or if 
they ever had, they had left it with the "Lost Chord." It 
was a jackass or jazz band in early i^rocess of evolution. 

On with the dance, and a South Sea dance had nothing on 
this one. Soon as the music started up, the men arose, 
walked over to the girls and asked them to dance. There 
were several preliminary quiet dances and then some less so. 
There was one I never can forget. I have seen country-barn 
dances at corn-husking time but this one, from the clatter 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 73 

of their heavy-soled shoes, sounded like horses kicking in 
fly-time in a livery stable. It was no vi^altz or bunny-hng. 
The dancing partners stood opposite and apart from each 
other and jiggled and jumped up and dovv^n on one foot and 
then on another, the object being apparently to see w^ho 
could dance the fastest, loudest and longest. It w^as an exer- 
tion and exhaustion dance. On© by one the parties and 
couples slowed up, stopped and sat down. Sad to relate, the 
band was never exhausted. One dancing man and woman 
lasted a long while," breathing and sweating like Marathon 
runners. They were very strong. The dancers gathered round 
to watch them. Finally he quit his St. Vitus jump, and his 
girl, with a woman's usual lung-power, hopped a little longer 
and then sat down to receive the applause and the reward of 
a purse. 

Mr. Goyta is Campeche's ice man. He had studied in New 
York, recognized us as Yankees and extended a warm invita- 
tion to attend a high society dance when he found we had 
been to a low one. This function was held at a theatre and 
was a full-dress affair with better people, music and visitors. 
The couples danced on a finely woven sisal mat. After we 
watched them we were invited into the side bar where we 
wished Goyta and everybody health and happiness in a soft 
drink. 

I chanced to remark that we were leaving next morning, 
and he asked us whether we had been vaccinated while here, 
for we would not be permitted to leave the town without 
some further "mark" of appreciation by the good citizens. I 
replied we had not been but would go and submit to a 
scraping acquaintance with the doctors. Had Goyta not 
informed us of this peculiar Campeche custom, we would 
have gone to tjie railroad station next morning, asked for a 
ticket to Merida, and been refused because Ave had no health 
certificates. This rule may be required for government graft 
but is necessary to protect Merida from the infected Cam- 
peche natives. Campeche has the reputation of being a dirty, 
pestilential place. She is like a drab all the year until car- 
nival time, when she puts on her paint and powder para- 
phernalia. 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

CARNIVAL CURSE 



THE word "carnival" is from the Latin "caro," 
which means "flesh," and "levare," meaning "to 
lighten." It refers to masquerade merriment and 
riotous revelry. It is a fast and furious festival 
celebrated in Roman Catholic countries a whole week before 
Lent. There may be some doubt about the origin of the 
word but there is no doubt of the doubtful practises of the 
|)eople. They pretend to walk in the straight and narrow 
way for fifty-one weeks in the year, and then emphasize all 
their hypocrisy by throwing the reins loose on the neck of 
Plato's black horse of passion, debauchery and drunkenness, 
and galloping to the hell-brink of everything vile, villainous 
and vicious. 

The carnival was devil-invented and is hell's holiday. It 
is not only anti-Christian but ante-Christian and goes way 
back to B. C. — "bad carnival" — w&y back to Bacchus, to 
Dyonisius of Eastern origin. He was the God of the Grape, 
son of Zeus, and his worship symbolized the reproductive 
forces of nature. He was more fantastic in his decoration of 
asphodel, ivy and laurel than poor, demented Ophelia. Influ- 
enced by a stronger preparation of grape-juice than any Bi*yan 
brand, he was led to love such animal pets as the panther, 
tiger and ram. He was convivial, loved to treat and always 
had a Bohemian club around him, Falstaff Silenus, orchestral 
Pan, goatish satyrs, rough-shod centaurs and bagnio Bac- 
chantes. His influence was wide-spread and among the various 
legacies he has bequeathed us is the song, "Cheer, cheer, the 
gang's all here." 

The worship of Bacchus had no such mj'-steries as are 
commonly supposed. The first carnival history we read 
about is when Bacchus and his boys and girls went out on a 
lark in hills and deserts without chaperons, the old folks 
being busy among themselves. They wore few clothes, 
except the clinging vines around their necks, and didn't care 
a fig for the figleaf. They rode goats and asses and carried 
sex-symbols aloft on poles, in front of the procession, to incite 
to deeds without a name for shame. The Greeks and Romans 
worshiped Bacchus, and Saturnalia was one of the Roman 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 75 

carnivals. The Roman poet Martial marshalled his poetic 
lines in celebration of it : 

"Ye stern brovrs and severe looks of rigid Catos, ye 
daughters of rustic Fabricii, ye mock-modest, ye censors of 
morals, and all ye proprieties opposed to the joys of dark- 
ness, flee hence! Hark! my verses exclaim 'Hail, Satur- 
nalia!' We are at liberty." 

The carnival, a rank plant of Paganism, has been culti- 
vated into a beautiful "passion" flower by the church. 
Instead of opposing this Paganism the Holy Fathers liked it 
and incorporated it into their service. It attracted them and 
led them to attract others. It v^^as in line v^^ith their daily 
practise, if not with their Sunday preaching. Popes not only 
patronized but promoted it. It flourished under such sacred 
souls as Paul II, Julius III, Paul IV and Sextus V. 

In converting the Indians in Central and South America 
I saw how the church had taken over many of their idols 
and ceremonies, putting gold and lace on the former, and 
substituting Latin for Indian dialect in the service. At Copo- 
cabana in Bolivia they placed Mary's image above the golden 
Inca throne where the oracle had stood, and at Guadalupe in 
Mexico devoted a shrine to her in a place once sacred to 
Tonantzinziv, the heathen god-mother. 

The carnival is just a Roman Catholic custom. We have 
street and New Orleans carnivals, but they are far different, 
being personal, public, patriotic and commercial. But Latin 
America's and Europe's carnival is altogether different. I 
have seen native carnivals in South Sea islands, a dragon 
parade in Japan, festivals in India and holidays in Egypt, but 
when it comes to the Pre-Lenten Roman Catholic church car- 
nival in Southern Europe and Latin America it has always made 
me think Satan had adjourned to earth for a holiday and 

was having a h of a good time. What a sad and bad 

philosophy that permits votaries to be Pre-Lenten devils if 
they will only be Post-Lenten saints. 

Byron paints a good carnival picture in his Venetian 
Btory of "Beppo": 



76 THE DEML LN MEXICO 

*' 'Tis known, at least it should be, that throughout 
All countries of the Catholic persuasion, 

Some -weeks before Shrove Tuesday comes about, 
The people take their till of recreation, 

And buy repentance, ere they grow devout, 
However high their rank, or low their station, 

"With fiddling, feasting, dancing, drinking, masking, 

And other things which may be had for asking." 

The people may not believe in the church, but they do in 
the carnival, looking forward to it through all the year and 
saving their money for it. Carnival and carnality are 
synonymous. Stomach rules the soul and the animal the 
angel. "World, flesh and devil are the Trinity worshiped. 

There is a Spanish proverb, "The Devil lurks behind the 
cross." When the old world Spaniard came to the New 
"World, he acted like the devil, used the cross in the form of 
the sword and killed the poor Indian who objected to being 
baptized in the "true church." The poor peons stood this 
for 300 years, and as soon as they were able, took swords 
in their own hands, put the clergy to rout, recovered their 
wealth, overthrew Maximilian and went back to idol love 
and, "worship. Their feast days, gods and carnivals were 
quite as good as those of the Christians in their judgment. 

The clergy believed a fair exchange was no robbery and 
forced their own feast days and symbols on the Mexicans. 
The Indians were compelled to swap gods and ceremonies, 
and with clerical favors and pleasures, entered the new 
religion. But it was such a noisy, noisome nuisance that 
either the church or state had to surrender this carnival 
carouse, and the state won out, compelling the church to sur- 
render its bell racket and prohibited its carnival processions. 
The carnival was the crowning curse of Catholicism. The 
difference between Christianity and Paganism in Latin 
America was in favor of the latter. 

The carnival is a curse to a country. "Wliether Lenten or 
other it is a mental, monied and moral loss. Some carnivals 
of two or three da3'S require weeks of preparation, months 
of recuperation and evil results are seen in broken heads and 
hearts. The main days in the calendar are not work days 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 77 

but play days. The native takes a siesta between fiestas. 
If we had such carnivals and so many holidays in the United 
States we vv^ould neither be nor do much better than Latin 
America. Life to them is a masquerade ball. If they ever 
get to heaven they will want to make it a carnival, to dance 
with the angels and throw star-dust confetti at each other. 

Carnival days are faster than the fast. At Campeche it 
was a time of utter abandon. Burned clothes were in style, 
powder-marked face and blistered fingers were signs of 
bravery. The man who drank enough to be a walking can- 
tina, or who swore most profanely, or told and sang the 
worst stories and songs, or had been in the greatest number 
of dances, or had debauched the greatest number of girls, was 
the hero of the day. Carnival is Pleasure's Sabbath. As of 
old it is the most lawless, loveless, lax, loose, licentious sea- 
son of the year, recalling the old carnival times of Venice 
with its bacchanal bestiality when the grand march was led 
bv Death. 



THE STATE OF CAMPECHE 



WE slipped out early one morning to the market to 
see the signs of life, and if there was anything that 
could support it, for it was too early to get anything 
at the hotel. The help was sleeping off its carnival 
effects of the night before. John Chinaman, always ener- 
getic, was at the market and ready to serve us with good 
coffee and sweet bread. We thought some fruit would taste 
good but what was offered us for sale should have been 
carried away in a garbage can. So we rambled down to the 
wharf, where a banana boat had just come in from Frontera. 
Natives were bargaining for bunches and taking them home, 
or to the market. Boarding the boat we went into the hold 
and bought and ate until we could hold no more. A native 
wanted to sell me a large, live tortoise to take home to 
America, and wondered why I objected, since he had offered 
him so cheap. 



78 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

On the old Spanish sea wall the buzzards were lined up 
like soldiers. When the tide is out and anything is left to 
eat on the beach, they swoop down and fight for it. They 
are the city scavengers, black white wings and the board of 
health. The season for killing these black birds is always 
closed. 

Campeche has a population of about 18,000. It is an old, 
fortified Mexican city. Her harbor is shallow and the city 
is left high and dry so that big boats sail by and only little 
ones come to shore. The country produces cedar, logwood, 
mahogany, sisal, cordage, chicle, wax, cocoa and salt. The 
principal manufacture is cigars. Talc, marble and salt 
mines are in the vicinity. Small coast boats come up to her 
docks to carry away these exports. 

The city was supposed to have been founded in 1540 and 
built over artificial Mayan catacombs used for sepulchral 
purposes. Idols and mummies have been found in them. 
Except in the carnival season, this graveyard spirit beneath 
rules the city above, for Campeche is just as idle, sepulchral, 
mummified and dead. 

Her citizens were hustlers once in the sixteenth century, 
when, to protect themselves against the English and Spanish 
pirates, who came to loot the town or make the bay a hiding 
place whence they could rush out and rob vessels coming 
from Vera Cruz, they built a great sea wall over 25 feet 
high and half as thick. It required 70 years and several 
hundreds of thousands of dollars. The citizens do not fear 
an attack of pirates now, but of the smallpox. 

The state of Campeche is in a state of ruin and dilapida- 
tion. Formerly, when a part of Yucatan, there was sub- 
stantial growth and progress. But lazy in itself, swinging 
in hammocks, it became jealous of Yucatan's industry and 
intelligence and pulled out in 1858. The Yucatecan is a near 
relation in blood and territory but miles away from the 
Campechano in progress. Campeche is self-sidetracked, slow, 
drowsy and dreaming life away like the turtles we saw on 
the beach. She only wakes up once a year at carnival time. 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 79 

A FISHING VILLAGE 



LERMA is a small fishing village up the coast, an 
hour's ride from Campeche. A little mule tram, not 
worth a dime, dragged us by dirty shrines set in 
the house walls, by the beach with some wrecks and 
fishermen and passed hills covered with brush and crumbling 
Spanish forts, and fields of goats. The most interesting sight 
was breakfast in our mule car. A pretty Indian girl opposite 
bared her breast for her hungering half-naked boy. It was 
a big meal in two courses. The little sucker enjoyed it im- 
mensely, smacked his lips, clapped his hands and made me 
hungry. She was a kind, sacrificing little mother, evidently 
poor and doubtless with much to be sour at, but the milk of 
human kindness had not been dried up or curdled in her 
breast. 

Lerma is a deserted village along the shore with houses 
falling into decay and walls tumbling into the sea. We 
watched some robust-looking Rebeccas drawing water at a 
well with no nearby Isaacs to court them. One other occu- 
pation Lerma citizens are engaged in is sleeping in the sun 
on stone benches like so many lizards. This was the day 
after carnival, but most of them do little else the rest of 
the year. One staggering, drunken Indian came out of a 
cantina, introduced himself to us as a guide and insisted he 
could lead us straight to the talc mine I had inquired for. 
We politely refused. I went ahead but he followed and 
attempted to lead us to a lonely rocky ravine,. a fine place 
for a murder. W^e were alive to the occasion, ignored him 
and his services and escaped. He left muttering some strange 
words we were glad to be ignorant of. 

Proceeding to Mr. Davis' tale mine we found it closed 
on account of the revolution. We entered the gate and looked 
at the mineral deposit and machinery. There seemed to be a 
lot of talc here, but from the way the Campeche brunettes 
powder their faces, I fear the mine will be soon exhausted. 

When I had started out sight seeing I had requested the 
conductor to hold the car for me till I came back, for street 
cars here are few and far between. He promised to ring 



80 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

the station bell five minutes before he started. "We heard the 
bell, rushed to the station and reached it in time to see him 
lift the big bell off the hook and lock it in the office. If 
you Avant to find anything here where you put it you must 
lock it up. They steal everything except a march on time. 



PLAGUE PASSPORTS 

OjUR simple request for a vaccination certificate was 
I not sufficient. It required two hours of watchful 
waiting and working to procure the precious scrap 
of paper necessary before we could get our railroad 
ticket from Carapeche to Yucatan. In the dark, stuffy office 
of the government building I saw a crowd of natives, men, 
women and children, all with arms bared, besieging a dimi- 
nutive doctor. It was an indiscriminate scrimmage. We 
roamed to the end of the room and looked at the portrait 
patriots who gazed down from the wall unmoved at our pre- 
dicament; went out on the scorching balcony where the lazy 
natives lay unconcerned; then looked in the official office 
where we saw our hotel proprietor to whom I had paid good 
money for bad service. He, too, was unmoved. Davis and 
Goyta, the only men in the city who talked English and had 
promised to be present, were nowhere to be found, according 
to the Latin method of keeping appointments. Here we were 
with the possibility of missing our train and remaining 
another day* pestered in this pesthole. I grew feverish in 
waiting and was certain I could get any bad disease in another 
twenty-four hours. As it was, I felt I held the record for a 
fresh foreigner to live in Campeche a day and not be sick. 
Just then a pretty Cam" peach" passed by, and in my lonely 
distress I looked so appealingly to her that she understood 
the troubled beating of my heart. I pointed to my watch, 
said "ferro-carril," and with a knowing smile she left and 
returned with a gray-haired man kind enough to be her 
father. I had the official certificate price and gave him the 
money. lie pushed the crowd of natives aside and procured 
a blank for me to fill out, had it stamped and handed it to 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 81 

me. I was so grateful I would have been willing to kiss his 
pretty daughter if she had been near, and willing to receive 
the stamp from her lips. 

I could have read Pollock's ''Course of Time" in the time 
it took the mule tram to take us to the depot. Exchanging 
my money and health certificate for a railroad ticket, I 
entered a first-class coach. I knew it was a first-class coach 
because of the piles of baggage, boxes of chickens and loose 
dogs the passengers brought in with them. But we were an 
hour early and secured good seats. With these animals, the 
breath of those who leaned on me, the bad tobacco smoke 
blown around, and the natives sitting on the arms of my 
seat, you can easily see what a delightful, restful five-hour 
trip I had back to Merida. When we reached there it would 
have been well if there had been an official at the depot to 
welcome us with a hose of medicine to spray and disinfect us. 

Yet I am glad I went. Aside from a few scorched places 
on my clothes, holes burned in my hat, bruises received from 
my Procrustes bed mattress, bug-bites, anxiety and narrow 
escapes, etc., etc., I had the carnival time of my Mexican 
trip. Should I come down here this way again next year, I 
am sure I will stay — away. 



THROWING THE BULL 

ULLFIGHTING is a prohibited sin in Yucatan. It is 
cruel to kill the bull, but right and gentle to torture 
him as a Sabbath pastime. We left the train at 

Tixkokob and jumped in a hack to make the train 

for Merida at the other side of the town. As we rattled by 
the plaza a great shouting throng drew our attention.^ A 
space in the plaza, in front of the cathedral and municipal 
buildings, had been fenced off. The whole city was there and 
the people were packed five feet deep on and around the fence. 
Those who had influence and money had "box" seats on 
the roof of the houses and balconies. The band was playing 
and I asked the driver what was going on. He replied, "A 




82 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

bullfight." I answered, "But it is not allowed." He said, 
"Oh, we do not kill the bull, we only play with him." 

We jumped out of the carriage and took the risk of miss- 
ing the train rather than the sport. I asked my friend Guerra 
if they had a bull-play every Sunday. He asked the driver, 
who replied it was only during the carnival, I said the car- 
nival was over five days ago. "Yes," said the driver, "but 
you see we wanted one extra day just for fun, and so we 
put it on Sunday, which is the biggest and best day of all." 
Can you imagine citizens of United States having two or 
three Fourths in the year and several Christmases just to 
please the small boy? 

For this Sunday service a man was making the rounds of 
the fence taking up a collection for the bull-throwers. 
Guerra gave him ten dollars for political effect, and it had 
its effect. The official bowed with many thanks and the 
crowd cheered with glee. For that generous gift we were 
ushered to the roof of a public building where an Alvarado 
officer, a boyish-looking man, sat surrounded l)y his party of 
gilt-braided men and gayly bedizened dames all dressed in 
their Sunday best. The band was blowing itself. A trumpet 
call was given, the crowd parted below in the plaza, and the 
bull was pushed into the plaza ring. 

Now desperate looking men appeared on horseback. Swing- 
ing lariats and catching the bull by horn and hoof, they dragged 
him to a tree where they cruelly tied him, and tried to make 
him wild and "playful" by torturing him, twisting his tail 
into knots, tying the rope around his nose and belly and 
jabbing banderillos in him. This done, Mr. Bull was freed 
and chased all' over the ground by amateur chulos who 
flaunted their ragged, colored shawls in his face and stuck 
him full of barbs. 

Pretty ladies smiled and applauded this pastime, just as 
at Havana I had seen their sisters wave their fans at the 
edifying spectacle of a cockfight. These bulls refused to 
work overtime or on Sunday. They stood still, or rushed 
the crowd and tried to hurdle the gate. Then the trumpet 
blew again, the bull was led out and a fresh bull brought in. 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 83 

We felt it was time to leave and drove to the depot. The 
agent informed us he had just heard the train M^as an hour 
late, so we returned and watched the bull-fight crowd prom- 
enade. We were asked to stay over, for there was going 
to be a hot time in the town that night, and we were invited 
to see the ladies, but we felt it was better every way to go 
back to the depot. So we started through the dusty streets, 
and half way there we looked at our watches and found we 
were twenty minutes early. But imagine our dismay to hear 
the train whistle and see the curling smoke in the distance. 
Lucky for us it was a slow train. We beat it to the station 
and leaped aboard just as it started. Moral — Never believe 
a Yucatan station agent. 



A SISAL HACIENDA 

WE were invited to a hacienda by a sisal owner who 
wanted us to see where they grew the sisal, or twine, 
we use for binding wheat grown in Minnesota. On 
our way from Merida we passed a railroad graveyard 
where scores of trains and trucks were rusting and rotting 
away which should have been in running order. They simply 
served as an example of the careless and don't-care spirit of 
the government. Here were cars and to spare, yet we rode 
in cars without a spare inch of room and crowded to the plat- 
form steps. 



When we reached our destination, G's private mule tram 
plantation car, that he had wired for hours before, was not 
there. Not because it had no time to get there, but because 
the telegraph despatcher hadn't found time to send the tele- 
gram. G phoned, and at last the driver with his mule and 
toy car arrived. The hacienda runs three kinds of ears, for 
the owner, the overseer and the peon. We sat in the shade 
of our private car and bowled along the narrow gauge on a 
good road-bed over rails imported from France. The sun set 
in a sea of henequen and our little car rocked like a ship in 
its green waves. We rode through little villages, across inter- 



84 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

secting tracks that ran to and through different sisal sections, 
and then arrived at the big hacienda. It was all complete in 
mansion and servants' quarters like the most up-to-date mas- 
ter's house in a Virginia wartime plantation. There was the 
same generous hospitality. We sat outside on the vast ve- 
randa with its mosaic floor and Moorish arches. 

In the centre of Yucatan one only expects the sun, moon, 
stars and lightning bugs for light, but here there was an acety- 
line plant that made everything luminous and resemble an 
Aladdin's Palace. The servant called us indoors to a spread 
of beans, meat, rice, tortillas and much else, in addition to the 
canned stuff we had brought. Now I learned the Yucatan 
way of eating. There were knives, forks and spoons, but our 
host did not use them. He took a pancake tortilla, dexterously 
turned and twisted it with thumb and forefinger into a little 
funnel shape, then used it as a shovel and scoop to pick up 
the meat and gravy and ate the whole thing at once. This 
made a good combination and saved the servant the extra 
washing of the silver. After several failures, in which I 
spoiled the tablecloth and spilled the beans in my lap, I got 
the knack of it, and believe I would like to eat that way 
now if U. S. food and style permitted. Here's a hint for 
Hoover. As a crusade against waste it beats licking the plate 
clean. After a little chat and some piano music, "L" rolled 
into his hammock, I preferred a bed, and we were soon lost 
in dreamland. 

The problem in Yucatan is to arise early, beat the sun 
and get to w'ork before nine o'clock. So we beat it and went 
out to an Eden of a fruit garden where we prefaced our break- 
fast with delicious oranges. "We couldn't go to the plantation 
church this Sunday because the government had ordered it 
closed, but we did go to a school. There were no scholars but 
the teacher pointed out the books and the maps. He showed 
the children's drawings and their practical work, which was 
planting gardens in the school yards. Two curious scholars 
came along and kindly stood on a big stone by the school 
door where they make their stump speeches. They held up 
the Mexican flag with its tri-colors and symbol of eagle and 
snake. 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 85 

A "PEON" OF JOY 



NEW laws prohibit peon labor on Sunday, but they 
can work for themselves. We noticed many of them 
with their bare legs, apron skirts from waist to knee, 
and straw hats on their heads, who were building a 
tree framework for their thatched cottage. In one native hut 
with its happy family two girls stood in the doorway with 
their constant companions, Mr. and Mrs. Pig, who always have 
the freedom of the yard and house. Against the old Hebrew 
law of gathering sticks on Sunday I photographed a man and 
woman picking up sticks and piling them in stacks on their 
backs. 

It was growing warm and we entered a home. For refresh- 
ment they went out into the yard and knocked down some 
cocoanuts and gave ns a sweet, cool drink that discounted the 
finest soda fountain. 

The hacienda is well equipped with servant quarters. We 
met the intelligent blind overseer and the young plantation 
doctor who later came to ''L's" rescue and extracted from his 
ankle a sword-pointed shoot of a sisal plant. 

The peons in their cane huts appeared to be as happy as 
their master in his fine mansion. Formerly they were mere 
slaves with a mean wage for an all day of hard work. Now 
under Alvarado they earn a dollar and a half gold a da^^, 
good w^ages, and extra money for every extra sisal leaf they 
cut. Peon's life is a paean of joy. So far their only ambi- 
tion is to work several days and make enough to loaf the 
rest of the week, when they visit movies, ice-cream parlors 
and the promenades of Merida. It remains to be seen 
whether they will become ambitious to be educated and civ- 
ilized. 

Times have changed for the better for them. They are 
well taken care of, have schools, doctors, wages, weddings and 
Christmas presents. The moral conditions on this hacienda 
were good. Elsewhere they are reported to be very bad and 
lax. Peon men are often subject to the cupidity of the master 
and his son, and the girls and women to the lustful caprice of 
the hacienda owner and son. Even now with all their free- 



86 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

dom, many of the peons dare not resent the advances of their 
brutal lords. 

The Yucatan peon on the sisal plantation is having his 
innings now and is uo longer overworked and underpaid. 
Alvarado has declared that labor shall be eight hours a day 
and with high wages. Mr. Peon lays off, goes to town, wears 
necktie, white shoes and Panama hat, eats white bread, 
drinks beer in the cantina, smokes cigarets, listens to the band 
in the plaza and promenades, taking up all the walks and 
seats and crowding out the wealthy aristocrats. He doesn't 
improve his mind. When his money is gone he goes back to 
the plantation and works, for his owner can't fire him wnth- 
out a heavy fine. To get rid of him at all he must give him 
long, previous notice. Meanwhile the henequen fields are 
unworked, weeds grow and the sisal plants blossom and die. 



YUCATECAN TRAITS 



ACCORDING to the Genesis of Mayan mythology, God 
made the first man out of a handful of earth and 
grass. From the earth came his flesh and bones and 
from the grass his skin and beauty. 

The Mayas were the original settlers of Yucatan, so far as 
we know, but despotism settled their fate a long time ago. If 
Yucatan was the kindergarten of the Western Hemisphere, 
the only things I found left were the building blocks of ruined 
cities and temples. Death planted the ancient Mayas under 
ground, either because of epidemics, lack of sanitation or 
exhaustion of the soil. 

The Mayas practised phallic worship as represented by a 
cruciformed tree of life signifying generative power. In the 
famous cross at Palenque is found the union of the two male 
and female ideas. There is a human figure on the left and 
one on the riglit and they are ofi'ering a child for sacrifice. 
The arms of this cross are composed of four chronographic 
signs. The cross represented a period of 8.000 years and was 
"sacred to the sun as the great creative power, to the year as 
the producer of rains, and to the maximum period of time." 



1^ 




"BEGGARS DESCRIPTION" 



VANEGAS, MEXICO 




A BREAD-WINNER 



MEXICO 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 87 

The Mayas may have been scholars to read and write, 
artists to inscribe and carve, and practical engineers and 
mechanics to build, but you v^ouldn't judge so if you looked 
in the faces of their hopeless and helpless descendants, vv^ho 
live now in huts instead of palaces and are only ambitious 
enough to get money enough by raising henequen to raise an 
unheavenly kind of a time the rest of the week. Whence 
came the Toltec and Aztec ancestors? Science speculates and 
says "I don't know." Neither do I, but I do know where 
most of their descendants are going. 

The Yueatecans have a characteristic character. They are 
quiet, modest, happy, clean and moral compared with the 
Mexican's greatly corrupted condition. There is little crime, 
few beggars and good health, though there is some tubercu- 
losis and occasional cases of yellow fever. The men at work 
resemble Egyptians in their dress of a truncated bag on their 
head, a "pita" which falls down their backs, white pants and 
a white apron called "delantre" from their waist to knees. 
The women wear a "hipil," a sort of Mother Hubbard or 
holuku. It is made of one piece of cloth ornamented with 
hand-made embroidery and hangs down ungirdled from shoul- 
der to ankle. 

The Yucatecan woman is no mere "white" slave but a 
brown, domestic drudge. Her life is one dismal grind, grind- 
ing corn and castor beans. Instead of social teas and euchre 
parties she makes tortillas and washes clothes from morn till 
night. She is small, well-formed and wears a fine coat of 
Yuca"tan." She wears a kind of Mother Hubbard and combs 
back her black hair so that it falls out in front, leaving a high 
forehead. She is loaded down with gold coins, crosses and 
ornaments, until, like her Hindu sister, she is a regular walking 
bank. 

Mayan men are short, have black straight hair, shiny eyes, 
and their swarthy, sweaty skin looks like a glistening ham- 
rind in the sun. The Mestizos are lighter color is skin and of 
a happier disposition. The Mestizo, compared to a Mayan, is 
maple sugar to molasses. The Mestizos are a good mixture 
of Indian and Spanish blood. All Yueatecans have some 
native blood, but they are called "white" unless they have 
more than 10 or 15 per cent Maya blood in them. 



88 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

Yucatan was our first stop in Mexico, but if you want to 
insult a Yucatecan, call him a Mexican. He hates the Mexi- 
can as the Mexican hates the American. I do not blame him, 
for he is cleaner, more moral, honest and industrious, and 
spends his time raising henequen instead of hell. 

The natives are peaceful and law-abiding, but tired of 
despots and wish the U. S. would come in and free them. 
They no longer want their hard-earned money to be taken 
from them and spent bj'- government officials and generals for 
graft, gems, girls and gasoline. 



HENEQUEN HISTORY 



HE machine shop was open but not a wheei turned. 
The sisal process was explained. "We saw the new 
cut leaves piled up like cordwood. They are 
shunted here in a small flat car from the field and 
fed into a machine which mashes and pulls the yellow pulp 
in each green leaf away from the sisal threads and fibres 
which extend through its whole length. We next visited the 
drying yard where the wet fibre had been taken and hung 
on wire-like clothes-lines. It looked like the flaxen switches 
of a hair merchant, or strings of macaroni in a Naples fac- 
tory. Men were taking it off, although it was Sunday, to be 
baled like so much hay and sent to Progreso for export. 

We were muled all over the plantation, up one track and 
down another, by thick fields of henequen. We thought it 
would be a new experience to walk through a sisal field — it 
was. The sun sizzled and before I had gone ten feet I had 
been struck twenty times by sisal spear points. The plant 
is like a bush of bayonets. Its standing order is "Charge 
bayonet" to any one who advances. A field of this would be 
superior to any European war barbwire fence. The tender- 
foot becomes an Arnold von Winkelried, and ere he can say 
"Make way for liberty," receives what Arnold was up against. 
We were attacked in the front, rear and side all at once in 
the attempt to get a few photos. 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 89 

This henequen grows out of the hard, dry, bare crevices 
of coral rocks. The reflected sun rays at ten o'clock unite 
with the heat overhead to make the field a gridiron on which 
the poor peons are nearly roasted alive. How they do stand 
it, walking about in their bare feet and with arms bare to 
the elbow, is incomprehensible. Formerly they worked in the 
sun stripped to the waist, with bodies pricked and bleeding. 
Now the government compels the owners to furnish under- 
shirts for their protection. Dante could have made an 
addenda to his Inferno if he had worked in a sisal plantation. 
The Federals surrendered here at Tixpeual, and I'm sure it was 
a bloody battle if it was fought in the sisal field. I am glad 
the peon's salary has been raised, and I do not blame him for 
laying off as much as he can. Of course, this lazy idleness 
lets the fields sprout up, flower and go to seed and ruin. If 
we can't get sisal, we can't get binder twine for wheat, and 
no wheat means no bread. A planter told me that already 
the henequen production had been reduced thirty per cent, 
and in two years his plantations would be ruined. He wanted 
to go to the U. S. to do something worth while. Laborers 
are imported from U. S. and Cuba but are sent back because 
they cannot stand the heat. 

United States receives some sisal from Manila and New 
Zealand, but Yucatan gives us 90 per cent. This peon labor 
problem must be adjusted or we shall be compelled to invent 
new machinery to take the peon's place. 

Going to the station our mule train tried to jump and turn 
a somersault. It requires but little to throw the car off the 
little rails. We all leaped out and avoided the ditch, then 
pushed it back on the track. Meanwhile the mule looked 
back and gave us the *' hee-haw." As we passed through the 
native villages we saw the families at home, sitting in the 
shade — the men in cotton pants and the women with only a 
smile and a skirt. The latter were leaning over the fences 
and gossiping in true womanly way. The men were on the 
lawns or lolling in hammocks. The girls were the color of 
molasses candy, a sweet set, but we had no taste for them, 
and hurried to the depot. 

At the station I watched a native take several threads of 
sisal, roll them between the palms of his hands on his knee, 



90 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

and in far less time than one could roll a cigaret he had made 
a rope and given it to me. Pie urged me to do the same and 
I'll be hanged if I could do it, though I tried, tried again and 
never succeeded. This is part of a native's education, for they 
are born, live, labor, love and die in the hammocks that they 
weave. The sisal thread is woven into the fabric of their life. 
We watched them make hammocks on the curb, in hut and 
market, which are packed in bundles to be shipped to the U. S. 
From the sisal they make bags for packages, saddle cloths, 
twine and rope, and money from all of it. The mule that pulled 
us wore a sisal harness, and the whip the driver lashed him 
with was made of sisal. In Yucatan we wiped our feet on sisal 
mats, couples danced on sisal mats, ladies wear sisal slippers 
and men sisal sandals. You may buy a sort of Panama sisal 
hat. In absence of quill or wood toothpicks the natives use 
a sisal string superior to our dental thread. In a true sense, 
more fateful than fanciful, sisal is the Yucatecan's thread of 
life. All political, social and financial life in Yucatan is bound 
round with a sisal string. The henequen hammocks are big 
and coarse, or small and fine. As I climbed the temples and 
ruins of Uxmal I wondered how the stones were hauled and 
heaped high without modern machinery, and my guide declared 
the Mayas had used great sisai ropes. 

The sisal plant is a well-known member of the vegetable 
family, has near relatives of cactus and maguey in Mexico, and 
very distant relations in IManila and New Zealand. The baby 
bulb plants cluster around the dry mother plant which lives 
on the hot, bare coral rock. At the proper time they are 
weaned and taken to the nursery, set out and permitted to 
grow like Topsy for three or four years. It soon arrives at the 
teeth cutting stage. The leaves, now four or five feet long 
near the base, are cut off with a machete, making the whole 
plant resemble a gigantic pineapple. It is carefully tended 
and brought up. The bad companions of weed and brush are 
kept from it, and it grows up in three or four years into a 
clean, strong youth. Then for twenty years the plant spends 
a useful life, gladly giving its arms for a useful and philan- 
thropic purpose. As in the human family, early good care 
leads to good later life. If the plant is neglected and selfishly 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 91 

allowed to grow up for itself, without pruning and lopping off 
its excess strength it reaches maturity and dies useless. 



KING SISAL 



SISAL is king. Henequen is the "green gold," and 
this is what millionaires have made their wealth by. 
If you have enough sisal you can do anything except 
buy a front seat in heaven. Years ago the church 
tried to make the producer believe he could get even that if 
he gave the church enough. 

Sisal is first-cousin to Maguey (Maggy). For years the 
Mexican got drunk on the juice of the latter and hung him- 
self with the rope of the former. What wheat is to Min- 
nesota, cotton to Mississippi and corn to Illinois, henequen is 
to Yucatan. There are several hundred haciendas, and thou- 
sands of acres owned by less than 100 holders, who by mar- 
riage and manipulation have kept it in the family and made 
it a monopoly. This sisal society and oligarchy had immense 
social and political influence. They made things run as 
smoothly their way as if they were a Standard Oil Co., and 
had a loud voice in saying who was" who and what was to be 
done. 

In Yucatan these haciendas became a kind of slave market. 
Diaz grew tired of the rebellious Yaquis in Sonora, and under 
his active or passive rule the Indians were shipped to Yuca- 
tan haciendas with their wives and children and made prac- 
tical slaves. They were illy housed, whipped to death and 
welcomed Hades as a relief to the hell of their earthly 
existence. This is changed, thanks be to God, who put 
Alvarado on the job. He took the sisal lash out of the over- 
seer's hand and cracked it over his head, saying if there was 
any more of this Uncle Tom business he would be the Simon 
Legree. People who opposed him spent some of their big 
money in making a hasty exist to revisit their rich summer 
resorts in Europe or America, or they were boarded at public 
expense in the pen. their rich palaces being confiscated and 
their Shylock haciendas made forfeit by the law of Yucatan. 
Some have remained here to hate in quiet, because Alvarado 



92 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

has made them divide their former gains with the govern- 
ment and insists they shall now share large present dividends 
with their peon help. Aye, but this is the rub ! Reaction 
has set in, ex-slaves won't work much, plants are not im- 
proved. 

Owners say they are in need of money, and 12 cents a 
pound would give them a satisfactory return for their invest- 
ment. As it is now, they are not clearing 2 cents a pound. 
Another owner admitted all this loss and sadly sighed, "I 
guess it's retribution. We are reaping what we sowed." But 
there's millions in it, though not now for the planter. "When 
Alvarado turned the trick and won his government position, 
he needed money, but the chest was as bare as Mother Hub- 
bard's cupboard. He took over the old Commission Regula- 
dora. It had been formed to protect the planter against the 
plutocratic "International Harvester Co.," which imported 
the sisal and made its own twine. But the corporation slippedi 
it over the Yucatecan and was lassoing things its own way. 
The Yucatan Reguladora did not regulate for Yucatan, so 
Alvarado said we will make it work and work our way. He 
borrowed ten millions from U. S. bankers, put the Reguladora 
on a working business basis, forced the planters to sell their 
henequen to the Reguladora by making a law that none should 
be shipped out of the state that had not passed through the 
government commission. He further regulated this irregular 
Reguladora by compelling planters to loan money to the gov- 
ernment, that is, to himself the government, for like Louis 
XIV he is the state, and he gave them Reguladora bonds in 
exchange. In this game he called a raise and got it. America 
pays more than usual, the planter gets less than ever, and 
Alvarado has most of all, and a part of this revenue goes to 
higher wages for the peon, public city and state improve- 
ment. 

Today in U. S. I fearlessly use the name "Alvarado." "When 
I was in Yucatan I called him "Mr. James," as I did every 
other official, James I, II, or III, to avoid suspicion. Alvarado 
has been beneficently despotic. Naturally, he has kept enough 
for present sunshiny hours and future rainy days. Human, 
he needs a home, food, clothes, servants, autos, diamonds, 
bank accounts and a few other necessary things, but if he 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 93 

has robbed the planter Peter he has paid the peon Paul. He 
has taken planter loans and taxes and given the peon eight 
set hours of labor, a decent w^age, a shirt to keep off the 
sun and the barbed henequen spears from flaying him alive. 
He has also made it possible for the peon's growing children 
to have schools vrhere they may rightly learn the three R's. 

The peon formerly received as wages about twenty-five 
cents a day. Alvarado fixed a minimum limit of thirty cents 
for the cutting of every thousand leaves. Some plantations 
now give fifty cents a thousand. A hustling peon, who cares 
neither for heat nor hurt, cuts as many as three thousand 
leaves a day and is from one dollar to $1.50 to the good. Two 
days give him three dollars with which to lay off and "lay on 
Macduff," and anything but lay by for the rest of the week. 

Sisal makes a monopoly of many things, but the main 
thing is money. Graft thrives like the plant itself. Our 
farmers were caught by their whiskers and shaken down in 
1916 for $4,000,000 more than they paid in 1915. The prices 
may be pushed just so far and long as Alvarado 's motto 
is, "Yucatan needs the money. Uncle Sam has it, let's get it." 

People in Yucatan feel they do the work and Carranza and 
Mexico get the pay. "With a government Dives at the table, 
they are like Lazarus under the table and fed with a few 
crumbs. Naturally they are "sore." They are told to "go 
to the dogs" for comfort. Admit Mr. Carranza needs the 
money for the government, but does he spend it for a govern- 
ment of the people or for the grafters who hate the common 
people? 

Suppose Americans do pay more for twine and bread. We 
are able and generous and can stand it if we know the money 
goes to help establish a decent form of government where 
honesty shall prevail, the people be educated, the laborer get 
some quid pro quo for his work and something more than 
bare feet, blistered hands, broken back and a stomach half 
full of dirty beans and dry corn tortillas. We don't care so 
much whether they raise the price of henequen as whether 
they raise the standard of living; not what they plant if they 
plant ideas of morality, intelligence, truthfulness, honesty, 
purity and liberty. Too long Yucatan has been a low, lime- 
stone limbo of lost souls. 



94 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

The bread basket of the United States is made of Yuca- 
tan sisal. Sisal is the bond between ns and Yucatan. It is 
the binder twine that entwines our sympathies. Some think 
we may be able to grow New Zealand hemp plants in South- 
ern California and the coast region of Florida, Louisiana and 
Texas. Already New Zealand and Manila are competitors 
with Yucatan in a 10 to 12 cents a pound sisal delivered to 
New York. 



ALMIGHTY ALVARADO 



ALVARADO has been called by capitalists a robber, 
his plans devilish and his rule hell. If he is a "devil," 
he has some good points, outside of his tail and horns, 
that some "good" people might do well to imitate, and 
they might follow in his cloven foot steps. He is but very human 
in believing Yucatan for Yucatecans, first, la'^t and all the time. 
How long his rule will last is questioned by those opposed to 
him, who must admit he has already taken enough money from 
the henequen production to give a rule caging the gambling 
tiger or cutting his sharp claws. H'e has put out the Rod Light 
and "white" and brown slavery, prohibited bull-fight killing if 
not torture ; stopped cockfighting ; picked up the drunkard and 
put him on a national waterwagon ; opposed the importation of 
liquor; closed useless churches; opened useful schools; prac- 
tically abolished sisal slavery and told the peon that after he 
has worked eight hours a day he can spend the other sixteen in 
rest and recreation, or do anything so long as he does not plot 
revolution against the government. 

The Yucatecan is waking up and is pinching himself to 
find out if it is all a dream. He has slept through a long 
night of horror, but the alarm clock of Liberty is ringing, and 
he has rubbed his eyes, dressed and is ready to start out 
towards a new dawn and day. May he make progress with 
no capitalistic or clerical highwayman to slug him and put 
him to sleep again. 

Alvarado believes in school bells and not church bells. To 
Yucatecans ignorance has been a blister and not bliss. 
Formerly the rich and blue bloods were sent to select schools 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 95 

in Mexico City, United States or Europe. The poor peons 
were left at home to work their hands and not their heads, 
Alvarado decided that school products were as important as 
sisal, so he sent to the U. S. for teachers, turned the churches 
into little red schoolhouses, compelled the children to learn 
and not loaf, and told pa, ma and the old folks they must go 
to school, not a Sunday one, and learn to read and write. Just 
think of little Yucatan having more than two thousand 
teachers, and a teachers' congress at Merida. I believe in this 
kind of a revolutionary army. 

Alvarado is variously called a czar, a despot aild soldier 
of fortune. Prom weighing sugar and lard, he went over with 
Madero, kept his head after he was shot, and joined Carranza, 
who sent him to double cross Arguemedo, who was planning 
to make Yucatan independent of Mexico and make himself 
its lord and heir. 

Alvarado pushed him out of his military saddle, and all 
booted and spurred as he was, jumped in himself, took the 
reins of government in one hand and used the other to make 
a derisive gesture from the tip of his handsome nose. The 
sisal was the thing or string in which his hopes were tied and 
entwined. He took over the private Reguladora Co., which 
the planters had organized to regulate the sale of henequen 
for themselves, and made it over for himself and the govern- 
ment — the same thing. Making a lasso of hemp, he roped in 
the planters and held them tight, declaring they should sell 
the Reguladora all they produced at his price, and the 
Reguladora would sell it at his price to the Yankee manu- 
facturers who made it into twine for binding wheat and 
stringing up the farmers with high prices. 

"Alve" is thirty-six years old, is a born radical and grows 
more so. Money is power and might and almost almighty. 
Alvarado made it and made it stand up and say with Inger- 
soll, "I know that my Redeemer liveth." He has kept him- 
self in power because he has kept Carranza 's worthless rag 
money out of the country. 

Yucatan has always been less religious and more Chris- 
tian than Mexico. She preaches less and practises more. Her 
Monday conduct was ahvays longer than her Sunday creed. 
Himself an atheist, and some say an "agnostic," Alvarado 



96 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

wanted a God to make good and prove that He was good by 
making the peons good. Merida had 80,000 people, twelve 
churches, 200 priests and a big family of sisters and nuns. 
Believing that a government was no better than its homes, or 
homes any better than its churches, he proceeded to do some 
religious house-cleaning. He told the plainly proved political 
and plotting priests to get out and they did, their "sympa- 
thetic" sisters to do likewise, and they did, and the arch plot- 
ter of all, the avaricious archbishop, to get out, and he did. 

I saw four churches in IMerida where services are held, 
under Alvarado's supervision, and was told there were no 
nuns and only five priests in all of Yucatan. The field is not 
very interesting now to the church, judged by former clerical 
standards. One finds today a Syrian church, a Presbyterian 
chapel and an American board of foreign missions. 

The clericals called "Alve" a "robber." He replied in 
substance that the churches had been built and supported 
by robbing the people, and he intended to return their money 
to them in a helpful way. He bought some of the churches, 
monasteries, convents and nunneries at his own figure and at 
a depreciated Carranza currency, but the rest he confiscated 
for school, library, museum, warehouse and other sensible and 
serviceable purposes. 

He used one church as a warehouse for storing food sup- 
plies, another as a school for teaching domestic science to 
young girls and women, and one other as a library and uplift 
club to young men. The big cathedral in Merida is closed, but 
the San Juan, Santiago, Santana and San Cristobal churches 
are open. Most of the churches throughout Yucatan are used 
as schools. P. Diaz knew but cared little for the education of 
the poor peon's children ; now on the haciendas they are taught 
that they have minds and souls and are not mere hands to 
make money for the planter. 

Though Yucatan is a part of Mexico and the hacienda 
owners are a part of Yucatan, thej'- are a little country by 
themselves. The haciendas include from several hundred to 
seven thousand acres with a proportionate number of laborers. 
These "ranches" are miles from town so that if the children 
are to get an education it must be on the hacienda. Formerly 
the peon was enslaved in mind as well as body; now he has 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 97 

broken away and thrown his chains in his captor's face. The 
question was what to do. The natural and necessary answer 
was, take the hacienda chapels on every farm, close them and 
make them schools, for while all haciendas had chapels there 
were but few schools. 

Alvarado's genius shines here. In less than two years he 
has founded more than a thousand public schools. And what 
a gain for government and God, if you estimate relative 
values and say that one good public school and its teacher 
are more valuable than 50 private parish schools and priests. 
More schools will follow. The poisonous, clerical shirt of 
Nessus, which has been wrapped around the body politic so 
long, is bound to be torn off even if the flesh goes with it. 

It should be remembered that the closing, sacking and 
robbing of the churches has not been done by Masons or 
Protestants, but by the Koman Catholics themselves. It is a 
matter of history that when Maximilian occupied Mexico it 
was his French Roman Catholic soldiers who did more to de- 
stroy the Roman Catholic churches than has been done during 
the recent five years of revolutionary strife. The four churches 
in the North, South, East and West quarters of Merida are 
permitted to run so long as they prove the church is a pious 
shop and not a political conspiracy. Alvarado's warning is, 
"I'll watch you four and only permit you to exist so long 
as you do not incite and excite against my government." The 
church reaped what it sowed, as any denomination will when 
the people are wise. Priests who become politicians, who 
want earthly gold and not heavenly good, temporal and not 
spiritual power, should neither kick nor complain when a 
rival political power like Alvarado gets in and throws them 
out. 

Inspired by Alvarado 's free-thinking speeches, the laboring 
men adjourned from meeting to sack the churches, to tear 
down the idols and images from their niches, burn the con- 
fessionals, cut up the paintings and make refuse of church 
relies and regalia. This was even-handed justice. It is just 
what the old Spanish bishop of Yucatan did when he came 
over, ruled with iron sceptre and ordered the Maya Indian 
records of their civilization to be destroyed. If the Yuca- 
tecan's Maya fathers and brothers were murdered and robbed, 



98 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

and their sisters and mothers outraged, so have the men and 
women of the church been punished. To the complaint that 
so much Christian art has been destroyed, I exclaim **Art, 
indeed!" This iconoclasm is good riddance of much bad rub- 
bish. Latin church art, as a rule, is so atrocious, vulgar, 
hideous and heartless that as I have looked at it my only 
regret was that any of it was saved and not all of it destroyed. 

The free-thinker is free to draw on his think-tank and 
absorb any religion and philosophy he pleases, so long as it 
does not make him a government traitor. The natives do not 
weep over this clerical wreck. They have time and money 
now for their family and are allowed some pleasures on earth. 
They were sick of the mummery talk of how beautiful and 
happy heaven was and how almost impossible it was to get 
there, and how awful perdition was and what "unnecessarily 
liberal facilities" there were for going there. 

The greatest religious cry against Alvarado is made by the 
female portion of the flock. It was they who principally sus- 
tained and supported the church service. To them it was 
earth and heaven, their physical, mental and spiritual solace 
in one, and they naturally objected to being robbed. But this 
loss is giving them a greater benefit. They have more money 
to spend on themselves, more time to swing in the ham- 
mocks, more leisure to care for their children, more hours 
to visit their husbands and possess much more of the home 
comforts and character without which all the creeds of Chris- 
tendom are valueless and vicious. They are beginning to 
be happy now with real "fathers" and real "brothers" and 
real "sisters." 

Yucatan is a Utopia of More to be realized. Much more is 
to be done before the ideal is practical. Yet Alvarado is 
hopeful. It took several days to build Rome, and several 
months may be required here. Considering the big job and 
the little time to do it, Alvarado has been a "well done" serv- 
ant. Hated by the church, which he has put out of business, 
hated by the henoquen planters whose millions he has divided 
for the good of the laborer and the community, hated by dis- 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 99 

appointed labor leaders who attempted to step in henequen 
owners' shoes and walk away with an equal amount of coin 
to the bank, Alvarado loves his work, worries little over his 
critics and plans big things for the future. Among these 
plans are government ships from Progreso to New Orleans, 
government railroads, a government plant for making sisal 
sacking and a government ownership of all public utilities. 

Alvarado has taken the land owned by the government, 
or by hacienda barons who had permitted it to lie idle and 
uncultivated, and has allowed more than 350 peons, who are 
now free, to have 50 acres each to have and hold for them- 
selves. The only condition of ownership is that they must 
work it up to a certain time when it is to be theirs. 

Alvarado is consistent. He promised what he would do 
and he has done it. His enemies call him "crazy," "devil," 
"bandit," "robber," "despot" — but not loud in his hearing 
— ^yet unswerved he pursues his plans. If any one stands in 
his way, and Alvarado finds him out, he puts him out of the 
way. 

Alvarado is a mild-looking and mild-mannered man. Yuca- 
tan had the reputation for growing henequen and despots, but 
he took the henequen and made it pay for the education, labor 
and religion of his people. Unlike P. Diaz, who worked more 
for the material than the mental good of his subjects, he 
adds schools, arts and culture to his catalogue of ships, rail- 
roads, mines and sisal. Enemies in Mexico and Merida hope 
to see him fall and fail. They pray for our intervention. Most 
of them don't know what they want or what is for their good. 
For the present they should let well enough alone and give 
Alvarado a chance to use a free hand. 

The world has had many malevolent depotisms, why not 
try a benevolent kind? Whatever stands for schools and the 
people is preferable to the military and clerical despotism 
they previously had. There is more chance for Yucatan with 
this kind of despotism than under the one she had. Yucatan's 
limestone peninsula is in the limelight. Let there be light of 
intelligence and liberty. 



100 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

ADIOS, YUCATAN 



LIKE many others we made a hasty exit from Merida, 
though for a different reason — to make a boat. In 
^lerida I had been flurried and fooled on my films -with 
mafiana promises, and had but half an hour to make 
ni}' train. I went to the photographer, Mr. Guerra, and asked 
for my negatives. He said they were developed but not dry, 
that I need not wait as he would send them on the next train. 
I had already waited too long. Patience and time were ex- 
hausted. I asked where the films were and he pointed to them 
hanging and dangling on a line. I snatched them off, waved, 
dried and did them up. In addition I had asked him to 
make copies of some Merida photographs which he promised 
to send to the boat, but they never appeared. He got the 
money and I got left. 

Another train ride through a sisal sea and we were again 
at Port Progreso. Providence in the form of Mr. Gomez, the 
"Ward Line agent, rescued us from the awful fate of sleeping 
and eating that night at Hotel Llano. Gomez kept open 
house for us, and baths and phonographs were the signs of 
civilization. His Chinese cook gave us a U. S. A. meal with a 
full course, ending with apple pie that made us weep with 
joy and sorrow that we were to have no more for many a day. 
Pie was a heathen Chink, but had a brand of apple piety that 
was delightful. He was very chummy and told me of his 
-w'de in England. She had been there for five years and could 
not return to Yucatan. Every Christmas he asked Gomez for 
money to send his Chinese wife for an annual new baby, al- 
though he had not seen her during that time. John would 
say, "I have one son more; I must have more money for my 
wife and new baby." Pie was proud to claim her as his wife 
no matter who the father of her children might be. 

Every time a "Ward Liner is expected Gomez gets up early, 
goes to the flat roof of his house and looks through the tele- 
scope for it. He is the life of Progreso and sees that all sisal 
is received and shipped out by lighters and ships. He also 
handles human freight. More people recently have tried to 
get out of Yucatan than the ships can accommodate. Refugees 
and revolutionists besiege his office and cry and pray him 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 101 

to take their money and give them transportation. Perhaps 
this is the reason why his hair has turned gray. We were 
safe and our berths secured. But at the boat office my sym- 
pathy was drawn towards a would-be return passenger who 
argued, cried and promised that if Gomez would get him room 
on board there would always be room in his heart for him. 
I noticed another Yucatecan talking to the American Consul. 
He was speaking in broken English to prevent the Spanish- 
speaking clerks from understanding that he wanted dynamite 
and a few other innocent explosives for his plantation. "In- 
nocent," maybe, but so much of ammunition and explosives 
are smuggled in that restrictions are severe and many. On 
the wharf, while waiting for the lighter, the big mules hauled 
small flat cars full of boxes from a freighter. The cruel drivers 
lashed them unmercifully and the mules ran and kicked at 
their treatment. Fortunately for us, they did not knock over 
and break up the boxes which were full of explosives. 

When I left the steamship "Esperanza, " I came ashore 
with a professional robber and murderer whom Alvarado had 
made captain. He had been mixed up in several murders and 
had the reputation of mutilating his captives after death. He 
looked like a giant edition of Villa, his big brother in fact, 
tall, broad, brutal, big-boned, square-jawed, heavy black hair, 
brows and lashes, and several revolvers stuck in his belt. 
Now on the lighter to the steamer "Monterey," which was 
to take me to Vera Cruz, I was in company with Mr. Mena 
and his private guard who was a walking arsenal. This Mena 
was the handsome Carranza officer who had run against Al- 
varado and, therefore, had been run out of Yucatan. When 
the waves rolled the lighter, the guard, who could stand be- 
fore bullets without wincing, became as sick as a baby. Nep- 
tune is stronger than Mars. He is no respecter of persons. 
Another noted passenger was a sturdy little revolutionist who 
had been imprisoned in Merida and was ready to be shot, but 
received a pardon the last minute and was told to get out 
and mighty quick. 

The "Monterey" was in a hurry to get away, for the 
barometer was going down and Captain Smith's anxiety was 
going up. He was not anxious to be struck by a "norther" 
in this shallow sea. 



102 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

The night before we reached Vera Cruz, when the parties 
and couples had settled into their places of friendship on 
deck or room, the Mexicans who were bound for Vera Cruz 
met in the salon and gave a private impromptu program. The 
wife of the fat revolutionist sang opera, Carranza's officer 
recited poetry and showed he could shoot ofi; his mouth as 
well as a gun. A Mexican professor gave an original dramatic 
poem with many gestures. A Gipsy-looking woman played 
very tenderlj% although she was accustomed to hold her chil- 
dren over the rail of the boat to terrify them. A Porto Rican 
drummer played a cornet. I was finally conscripted into 
service and did all I could to put the piano out of tune and 
out of business for the rest of the voyage. For this service I 
received the thanks of the officers whose needed sleep and rest 
were often broken and disturbed by the merry Mexicans who 
hammered the defenseless instrument at all hours of mom 
and eve, 



A VERA CRUZ HOLDUP 



OUR cruise to Vera Cruz was a race with a "norther' 
that was on the way, but had not yet caught up 
with us. During the trip we passed a lonely light- 
house way out from shore and signaled a "hello." 
The lighthouses along the coast are unreliable, for the gov- 
ernment does not pay the keepers and the bandits rob them. 
However thrilling and romantic the history of Vera Cruz, 
the city looks very commonplace to a globe-trotter, with its 
sand-hills and tawny towers of custom-house and cathedral. 
The traveler is never sure of seeing her background of moun- 
tain wall, but is always sure of seeing the frowning walls of 
San Juan prison in the harbor, with its damp dungeon and 
dark deed memory. This was the political hell of Mexico 
whore criminals and suspects were shoved into cells below the 
water's edge and left to rot or become gibbering maniacs. The 
San Juan jail at Vera Cmz cost Charles V 40,000,000 pesos, 
and Liberty many lives. The expense piled up so that he 
looked over the ocean to see if he could not see it. This pris- 
on plague spot was wiped out when our U. S. troops went into 




A MEXICAN LANDSCAPE 



CHARCAS, MEXICO 








REFINED PLEASURE 



BULLRING, MEXICO CITY 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO . 103 

Vera Cruz, We felt safe now, for while there was a little 
Mexican "boy" of war in the harbor, our white gunboat "Sac- 
ramento" was near by. Old Glory was flying from the mast 
and our sailors were skimming over the now peaceful water in 
launches. 

This Vera Cruz door of Mexico was slammed in our face 
by the Immigration officials. United States ship officials here 
never know what new and insulting kind of reception they or 
their passengers will receive on landing. Between ship ar- 
rivals the Mexican authorities think up some new indignity 
with which to slight and insult Americans. On this trip only 
passengers booked to Vera Cruz could disembark. Those go- 
ing to Tampico were not allowed to get off. This was the 
first time such a thing had happened and no reason was as- 
signed. No American was permitted to put his Yankee foot 
ashore on the wharf, but every greasy, grouchy, grafting 
greaser, who wanted to come aboard and see the ship and buy 
drinks, was welcome and was passed by the Mexican guards 
who stood at the gang. This made Captain Smith so mad that 
he said things no teacher uses in his Sunday school class. He 
declared he was captain of the boat and if they would not let 

his passengers go ashore he would be doubly if any 

Mexican set foot on his ship. The Immigration Officer who 
refused to let us off was a little, cocky, vain Mexican who 
not long before was Mr. Nobody whom nobody cared to rec- 
ognize. Now under the Carranza regime he was head of the 
department. He strutted, twirled his mustachio and played 
Sir Oracle so much that when he opened his mouth no other 
dog dared bark. Captain Smith swore he would find out what 
the trouble was if he was held up and shot for it. Donning 
a civilian's dress and pulling his hat firmly over his head, he 
marched bravely by the white-suited guard, down the gang, 
up the wharf and into town to learn from the Ward Line 
agent what was the matter. 

Meanwhile we paced the deck liked caged lions. At last 
the captain returned. He had received no reason or excuse 
for this official detention, but told us Vera Cruz was greatly 
excited. The people were reading the papers and talking 
about the Zimmermann proposal to Mexico to have her unite 
with Germany against the U. S. so that when we were de- 



104 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

feated Texas, New Mexico and California would be returned 
to her as spoils to the victors. This may have been the reason 
for our holdup. The steamer agent wired the government at 
Mexico City to see if passengers could get off. Next morning 
the answer was received that the government gave permis- 
sion and that it had sent a copy of the order to the Immigration 
officer at Vera Cruz. Yet it availed nothing, except to show 
how weak the main government was and how wilfully strong 
a subordinate officer was. The Immigration official insisted 
he had received no word from Mexico, and when our tele- 
gram was given him he turned up his nose at it and did 
nothing. 



WHARF RATS 

|0, nursing our wrath to keep it warm, we looked 
around at the life on the wharf. The arrival of a 
Ward Liner at Vera Cruz draws beggars as molasses 
does flies. The old and young, from baby to grand- 
ma, dirty, half-dressed, ragged, horrible hags and pretty girls, 
mothers with their own babies or babies of others, borrowed 
to work on the passengers' sympathy, were all present. They 
beg for bread, clothes, money or anything the sailors or pas- 
sengers may give them. Begging and thieving is their pro- 
fession. One girl came down with a bandaged hand and a 
borrowed baby. In half an hour the bandage was gone and 
she used it to wrap up things which had been tossed her. The 
girls greedily grabbed cigarets thrown them and smoked 
them. Sailors at the port holes looked on, laughed, leered 
and threw buns, bones, fruit and garbage at them, making it 
seem like a country fair pastime when visitors throw eggs at 
the coon's head target in the sheet. Some beggars were busy 
picking coal cinders, others heaps of ashes left by the wharf 
switch engines that ran alongside unloading the freight from 
the ship. Wharf-rats rolled over and over and fought for the 
filtliy food flung them, attempting to hide it in their rags, or 
steal it from each other. This is the submerged tenth; the 
scum that flows down from the city to the sea; the human 
dirt waiting to be swept off by disease into the dust-bin of 




THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 105 

the grave. They were sons and daughters of disease and 
deviltry. 

Turning our eyes from these human ruins, we glanced at 
the mechanical ones on the dock. Hoisting cranes that might 
have lasted fifteen years with care were rusting away in five. 
Only a few were in use. Once all were busy day and night, 
now during the war there were just a few and only when the 
boat arrives. Other ruins we saw were those of ship-skeletons 
on the shore when we entered the harbor. They were old 
enough to be the remnants of the Cortez fleet, scuttled and 
sunk that his followers might not escape. 



PROFESSIONAL PILFERERS 

IEXICAN workers came aboard and went into the 
^^^^ hold to help unload the cargo. They bring it from 
^raggl the hold to the hatch, a-nd put the stuff in a big rope 
^S^^^ net which is hoisted by the cranes to the wharf. 
They work slowly enough to hatch plans to "hold" over some 
things for themselves. In this way the Ward Line loses 
thousands of dollars worth of merchandise a year, although 
they employ guards and special police to watch the laborers. 
I noticed that when the workers left the ship they were all 
held up at the gang and two expert searchers went through 
their few clothes and found many things. One man had a 
half dozen fine handkerchiefs hidden in his sombrero. An- 
other, some lace and thin underwejar in, his trouser leg, 
making it way out of proportion. "When caught with the 
goods they scowled as if their regular trade had been inter- 
fered with. Others looked surprised that such a little pec- 
cadillo as pilfering should be noticed and punished by being 
sent to jail. I saw six of them searched and sent up, and pos- 
sibly felt worse for them than they did for themselves. But 
the big fellows get away with it. The custom government 
officials refuse to let merchandise get into Vera Cruz or go out 
without payment of a big bribe. The imposing custom house 
is simply a monument to graft. Duties are. often twice the 
original cost and to this you must add much more. These of- 




106 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

ficial thieves do no retail business, nothing but wholesale. No 
matter how much they hate Americans, they love our money 
and fall down and worship it as the heathen did the golden 
image that Nebuchadnezzar set up. Had I known earlier 
what I learned later, I think we might have left the boat by 
leaving something substantial in the guard's hands. At any 
rate a man who came back on our boat said he had worked 
the game that way, that money was the Sesame that opened 
the officer's heart. Quien sabe? Perhaps this was the reason 
we were held up because we didn't dig up. 



NIGHT LIFE 



AS A last resort to get ashore I decided to smuggle a 
letter from Secretary Lansing recommending me to 
the courtesy of the American consuls and British 
officials of the West Indies. A German came aboard 
from the wharf, I told him my dilemma and asked if he 
would take this letter to the American consul, Mr. Canada, 
and request him to give me permission to leave the ship. I 
supplemented these official letters with a vigorous protesting 
postscript of my own. Two hours later when I sat at supper, 
making it a sort of funeral feast, Mr. Canada's secretary 
brought me a pass for myself and son from the Immigration 
official, permitting us to go ashore. I have always like Canada 
from the Atlantic to the Pacific and have included this Vera 
Cruz Canada within the boundaries of my friendship. We 
didn't wait for the dessert, but prepared to desert the ship at 
once. The villain at the gang was foiled. He flashed his light 
on the pass again and again, then handed it back to me with 
an air of injured innocence, stepped to one side and let us 
off. 

Making a bee line across the dark, dangerous and thief- 
infested wharf and railroad tracks, we took the first street 
car we came to, and after a few minutes ride entered the 
plaza, the illuminated centre of the cit3^ What a climax and 
contrast to what we had been forced to suffer for two days! 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO ■ 107 

We felt like liberated slaves, or reprieved suspects who were 
to be executed. 

The plaza was not large, but all the city seemed gathered 
there. The band was playing and a swarm of youths were 
marching and countermarching round about. The wide side- 
walks bounding the plaza are covered and arcaded and called 
"portales." They were filled with little tables, at which sat a 
Parisian-like crowd gayly dressed, eating, drinking and smok- 
ing. On one side loomed the gloomy, old cathedral tower 
frowning on the happy souls. On another rose the old crum- 
bling arsenal wall and tower now used as a filthy barracks 
home of the soldiers and their families. On the other two sides 
were hotels and cafes whose rival music bands fought each 
other for customers and their trade of drinking and gambling. 

As we walked down the brightly lighted streets, to us all 
strange and filled with strangers, we encountered an Ameri- 
can, Mr. Hulett, a friend of my friend, Professor Aughin- 
baugh of Leslie's Weekly, whom he had traveled with in 
Venezuela. He kindly offered to show and chaperon e us 
around, for we tenderfeet needed to be guarded and guided. 

Passing by an open door cafe on the main avenue I was 
struck with horror to see a girl, with loose dress and looks, 
smoking a cigaret and sitting with one foot on the table and 
the other in her gentleman friend's lap. This form of table 
etiquette and manners we were unaccustomed to, but after a 
week's stay in Vera Cruz nothing surprised us. 

On we went enjoying new sights and sounds. Our good 
guide took us to another plaza near which stood a large build- 
ing. We entered. There was a guard at the door, the lights 
burned low, and will you believe it, there before my eyes were 
several perfectly nude ladies, perfect so far as their figures were 
concerned. Stop, my shocked reader, before you go further — 
you have another guess coming. It was not where or what 
yju think it was, but simply a moving picture house. The 
nude ladies we were introduced to were Annette Kellermann 
and her nymphs in the "Daughter of Neptune." I wanted 
to take my clothes off as well, for the place was a bake-oven 
packed with well-dressed, powdered and perfumed ladies and 



108 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

gentlemen. There was some relief for boys kept stumbling 
over us, offering lemonade and ice-cream for sale. I paid a 
dollar to get in, a high price for a movie, but you must remem- 
ber the government taxes theatres 20 per cent. No doubt one 
reason for the large Mexican crowd was the novelty of seeing 
some one in swimming and taking a bath, a most unusual 
thing for people who believe more in powder and perfume 
than soap and water. 

Returning to the ship we saAV many strange women sitting 
in the doorways in dishabille. They seemed to know us, but 
we couldn't recall where we had ever met them before or had 
been introduced. Vera Cruz was formerly called the "City 
of the Dead" on account of her many yellow fever victims, 
and the people who were lying dead asleep on the sidewalks 
and streets reminded me of Bombay. Undisturbed by police 
or pedestrian, they lay wrapped up in their scrapes sound 
asleep in the doorways, on sidewalks, plaza benches and en- 
trances to the railway station, "City of the Dead" it once 
was when a hundred a week died of yellow fever in the 
streets. Homeless by day, houseless by night and friendless 
all the time, God pity them for man doesn't, 

Mr. Whitney was another American, hale fellow and well 
met, who hailed us as were headed for the ship. Following 
the voice we entered the big Diligencias Cafe. He arose and 
gave us the glad hand and compelled us to sit down and 
take a drink of something I had lived thus long without ever 
tasting. It was vermuth, not quite so bad as medicine, and 
we drank to his health and vamoosed. 

As in Panama, the Americans here have little else to do 
but drink, talk and smoke, and drink some more. Water as 
a rule is dangerous in the tropics, but more men have floated 
to the Styx on fire-water than on the water that puts out fire. 
No matter what natives do in India or Mexico, the American 
must cut out the booze and ride on the waterwagon or in a 
hearse. It was hot and this vermuth did not cool us any. We 
went to our ship cabin bunks at eleven o'clock and were 
awakened at 2 A. M., half frozen by a blustering, blowing 
blizzard breath of Boreas, my old friend whom I had left in 
the North a few weeks before. 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 109 

IN A "NORTHER" 

^IT T was indeed Mr, Norther, persona non grata, a per- 
^1 JL son possibly more unwelcome than any other 
^^^p Norther from America. We had made the aequaint- 
^^^t ance of a hurricane in the South Pacific, and it 
sounded as if he had come up here from there. We hastily 
exchanged pajamas for pants and went out to meet him. 

We were surprised at his presence, hut the natives were 
not, for he generally blows in from the North, from Decem- 
ber to March, with a chilly welcome, causing the thermometer 
to drop thirty to fifty degrees in an hour. The wind whipped 
the white horses of the sea, the waves dashed over the wharf, 
small boats bobbed up and down, like corks on a whirlpool, 
and our big boat tugged on her hausers. Captain Smith had 
been waiting for this visitor for two days and was up and 
ready for him. We returned to the cabin, but were unable to 
sleep for the howl of the wind. 

Rising early we took a big breakfast for ballast and went 
ashore. It was Sunday morning, but no Sabbath stillness per- 
vaded the atmosphere. We thought it would be fun to walk 
the streets, and it was about as funny as taking a pleasure 
jaunt in a Sahara sand-storm. We could scarcely stand up 
and reeled about as if we had taken more than one glass of 
vermuth. The sand was like a shower of glass as it stung and 
cut our faces. It was a blizzard of dirt that blinded our eyes. 
We were whirled about like autumn leaves, compelled to turn 
our backs and to run for shelter behind some street comer 
building. 

Did you ever see a mummy? The people we had seen 
lying asleep on the street the night before, prostrated with 
heat, were now all covered up and leaning like mumm.ies 
against the curbs and walls. You couldn't see their face, 
arms or legs for they were all wrapped up exactly like a rag- 
bag. The men who were walking on the street wore sand- 
glasses like auto-goggles. They looked like sea-divers or men 
from Mars. The lower half of their face was bound with col- 
ored cloths and bandana handkerchiefs to keep out the dust. 
They resembled bandits or brigands. The citizens bundled up 
in their blankets looked like wild Indians, and a sight of them 



110 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

would make a horse shy or a street car run off the track. 
Every one was unusually surly, of "vinegar aspect," all were 
sandy, and I must confess that in all my travels I never saw 
such an army of dirty, villainous hoboes. Before I reached 
the market I had sharpened my teeth with the sand as well as 
my appetite. 

Antonio was a merchant of Venice, and I met one here at 
Vera Cruz buying a Sunday dinner. He was accompanied by 
a tot at his side caiTying a basket on his head half as big as 
his body, and trj^ing to keep it balanced. Antonio had mar- 
ried a California girl, spoke English and felt kindly towards 
Americans. lie offered to guide us around the city. 

The first place he led us to was a shop where we could buy 
some goggles, just as much of a necessary outfit here as an 
umbrella is in America in April, Next we saw our way clear 
to go to the old, one-towered and domed cathedral. It was 
full of people who had found refuge from the storm, and their 
ragged and tied-up appearance made the church look like a 
poor-house or hospital. The sound of the service was drowned 
out by the sand-storm on the roof. It was a sort of bombard- 
ment that recalled the war-time when our troops stormed and 
took the city, when bullets were flying, cannon booming, and 
the bells in the belfry were struck and rung, not by the sex- 
ton, but by shot. Inside there was a dim religious light by 
which we could see the natives shuffling over a floor thick 
with sand that had sifted in, and kneeling before patron saint 
and altar. Images stood like ghosts in the shadowy corners 
of the church. Near the high altar reclined a large statue of 
the Christ with pierced, bruised and bleeding body in the 
stj'le of the brutal realism of the Spanish artist Ribera. It 
looked like a body on a dissecting table. The poor and pious, 
dirty and devout worshippers approached and pressed their 
famished, fevered and festering lips on the hand and feet of 
the statue. It was enough to make a statue shudder. With 
a silent prayer that the heavenly Father would bless his very 
earthly children, we hurried away. 

At the other end of the town we entered a church where 
the rich and society people worship. Until recently it had 
been used as a stable by Carranza's troops. As the govern- 
ment grew more lenient it permitted it to be given back to its 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 111 

influential worshippers who were now calling on Him whose 
cradle had been a stable manger. There was a group of men 
standing outside who did not enter. After service I learned 
why. Just as at the Flatiron building in New York young 
men meet on a windy day to see the ladies' size and style of 
shoe, so their brothers here think more of hosiery than Rosary. 
To them stockings and skirts are a celestial vision. 

I picked up a flying church advertisement on the street. 
It wasn't a printed bill, but a Presbyterian church sign which 
the wind had sported with and deported like some Hallowe'en 
boy. What a contrast to the night before, bright, light and 
warm! After a tew hours a paradise was lost in a purga- 
tory of sand, flying bricks, glass, tiles, plaster and signs — all 
done by the magic wand of the wind. 

This church sign was my card of introduction to the young 
lady teacher at the door who spoke to Antonio and invited 
us in. A woman was speaking and when she finished, An- 
tonio told her I was a minister, and she kindly invited me to 
speak. Certainly I would, and I surely will until I die, 
whether people understand me or not. Antonio escorted me 
to the pulpit, stood by my side and was my interpreter. It 
was as novel to me as to them. For once I weighed my words 
and spoke slowly, and if I might judge from the way they 
received them I was confident that Antonio was not misquot- 
ing me. The service ended with a Gospel song and I sat down 
to the organ and played it, singing the English while they 
sang Spanish. Our music drowned out the diapason and bass 
of the storm. I observed the Ten Commandments on the walls, 
whether the people did or not. Too many just keep them in 
the Bible or church and nowhere else. At any rate, it was a 
relief from plaster saints, and to me made as good a decora- 
tion and a better declaration. The building was wooden and 
shed-like, and every blow of the wind threatened to blow it 
over. But there is much in a name. A sign over the en- 
trance read, "Ecclesia Evangelica-El Sinai." Let winds and 
northers come and go, rave and blow, and overthrow this 
building, or another bigger and better, the real church mem- 
bership founded on the rock of Sinai in the Old Testament, 
and the Rock of Ages in the New Testament, will stand all 
earthly storms. 



112 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

We saw many buildings that had been confiscated by the 
government. One was a library that had once been a church, 
others were religious buildings and convents put to practical 
use. The wind kept howling through the streets and re- 
minded Antonio of the norther a week before which had 
blown street cars off the track. Everywhere tiles and plaster 
were crashing down into the street. Turning a corner for a 
picture, I heard some shrieks, a crash and saw a cloud of dust, 
like a bomb-explosion, and some children running away. After 
it cleared up I saw that part of the plastered side of the tower 
had fallen down. Fortunate for me, if not for you, that I 
wasn't there for burial. It was necessary for men to come 
and shovel off the debris so the street car could pass. 

It was indeed a big blowout. On my turning another cor- 
ner some electric light globes above me crashed down on the 
sidewalk. The big wreckage was in the plaza. Fronds and 
plants were overturned, trees writhed and tossed, the park 
benches were upset and blown about, the open air movie 
palace had its fence, canvas and signs ripped off and moved 
away. It made a thrilling moving-picture to stand on the 
corner and see it all. The Diligencias Hotel arcade glass was 
blown in and shattered and scattered out on the street. Places 
were marked off by boards and barrels where glass and debris 
had been collected. Houses and stores were barricaded and 
shutters and doors let down as if the city were in a siege. 
The wind was doing the sniping and glass breaking. From 
the natural breastworks of the sandhills back of the city 
the wind kept up a ceaseless fusillade of sand. 

It was a "wild car ride we took over the city. The people 
pushed in, pulled the canvas curtains tight, which soon tore 
loose and flapped. The conductors and motormen, dressed in 
their white duck suits, huddled together to keep warm. The 
tall palms were much agitated. They wrestled with the wind, 
bent way over towards the ground and sprang back. Their 
fronded top was like a giant umbrella turned inside out. 
Wind and sand played a Tschaikowsky rushin' symphony on 
the leaves. The shore was white with waves and the salt 
spray stung our eyes and lips until we stood like Lot's wife — 
pillars of salt. 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 113 

This was no rest day for the weary or wicked. Sidewalk 
cafe chairs and tables were moved into the big hotels, can- 
vasses were put up to keep out the wind, and hundreds of 
men crowded to the tables, chatting, smoking, gesticulating, 
gambling and using strong drink and language. 

Years ago these "northers" were welcomed as sickness- 
destroyers in driving away the germs of fever and disease 
such as smallpox and "vomito," yellow fever. However, 
science later proved that Mr. Mosquito was responsible. Any- 
way, the microbes enjoy the dust-storm if the people don't, 
and on the aeroplane wings of the wind they fly merrily and 
madly over the city, dropping disease germ-bombs on the 
women and children. 

Through it all our boat was snug and safe though others 
were not. We watched some men frantically attempt to 
bring their boats out of the surf to the shore, but it was 
useless for they were too late. The owners had stayed out 
too late the night before, so the norther's destructive hand 
snatched the little lighters and crafts and flung them out 
and down to wreck. From our ship deck we looked through 
our glasses at a large sailing vessel attempting to avoid a 
reef. Fate was against her, she drove her hard on the out- 
lying reef and the crew's love labor was lost. No one dared 
venture out to aid them or expressed any anxiety or sym- 
pathy for them. This is nothing unusual. I learned a crew 
had once been wrecked near the coast and not a soul went 
out to give them aid or food, even after the storm had died 
down. They would have perished if a passing ship had not 
picked them up. All this in sight of land and known by 
Mexicans on the coast. 



DERELICTS 

LIFE'S seas and shores are strewn with human wrecks 
and derelicts. 

"Derelict" is from the Latin "de" and "relin- 
quere," meaning to leave or forsake. "We speak of 
derelict or "abandoned" property and forsaken children. It 
may mean remiss or unfaithful husbands, wives or Christians. 



114 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

Lawyers use the -word derelict referring to any article thrown 
away. ^Yhen sailors use the word they mean a piece of land left 
dry by the sea that may be cultivated, or a ship which is 
abandoned. 

Coleridge's "Ancient Mariner" tells of a wonderful dere- 
lict that in the distance resembled a speck of mist. The only 
crew aboard was Death and his mate, a woman with red 
lips, free looks, yellow locks, skin white as leprosy, and an 
influence that thickened man's blood with cold. 

"The naked hulk along side came, 
And the twain were casting dice ; 
'The game is done! I've won, I've won!' 
Quoth she, and whistles thrice." 

A sad sight at sea in mid ocean or near shore, on rocky 
beach or coral reef, is a ship once proud with life, beauty, 
cargo and passengers, now idle and dead — the sport of wind 
and wave, beaten to pieces or rotting away. Many such 
derelicts I have seen in far away snowy or sunshiny seas. 
How infinitely sadder the sight and greater the loss of human 
derelicts on life's ocean! Souls that were launched from the 
unknown sea and tossed in pain on the shores of time, were 
rescued by the young father and mother and anchored in the 
haven of the family home until they ventured out on a 
voyage for themselves and were wrecked. 

There are derelict row-boats of children abandoned to 
vice and sweat-shop labor; derelict pleasure yachts of young 
men and women drinking, gambling and sporting; derelict 
merchant vessels of dishonest, lying business men; derelict 
"tramp" vessels carrying a load of booze and blasphemy; 
derelict pirate craft with crew of theft and cruelty; derelict 
warships and submarines with cargoes of death and destruc- 
tion. 

Some ships become derelict because of false beacon lights 
on the shore. History tells of wreckers who deceived the 
sailors by making new lights, putting old ones out of posi- 
tion or even by carrying a lantern to and fro along the 
beach. So in life boys and girls from the cnnntrs-- and men 
and women in the city have been led from their true course 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 115 

of purity, honesty, sobriety and godliness. Some false bea- 
con or light has been swung by some preacher, educator, 
philosopher and writer and misguided souls have steered 
false and crashed into ruin. 

Other ships have become derelict because some sudden 
and terrible hurricane or storm has swept from some unseen 
or quiet quarter, and unprepared they have gone down. 
Many souls have been sailing in peace when, from some unex- 
pected quarter, there came a hell hurricane in the form of a 
bad, beautiful woman, the sparkling of champagne, click of 
roulette wheel, bribe of political office, foul story or sug- 
gestion of a companion, and they have been driven from a 
right course and safe mooring to become helpless and hope- 
less derelicts. 

Dare-devil bravado and recklessness have made many 
derelicts. Familiarity with danger breeds contempt of fear 
and of consequences. Sailors often make and take their 
bonds of fate. The ''Titanic" raced with death in spite of 
icebergs and vessel warnings, struck and went down — down 
by no "mysterious providence," but by the murderous work 
of men prompted by a hell of haste. Men and women take 
chances. Boys and girls are willing to drift towards tempta- 
tion once and at last they find themselves headed and driving 
for rock and reef or sand and shoal. They sail on a sea 
already black with derelict hulks, until they themselves are 
the devil's castaways on some shore or headland of a lost 
world 

The Gospel ship of character that leaves the port of a 
Christian home and church, that has the Christ of Galilee 
for its captain, the Bible for its compass, faith for its sail 
and hope for its anchor, will never be wrecked or derelict. 
After the storm and stress of life's voyage it will dock safe 
in the harbor of eternal rest. 

We left for Tampico next day and several weeks later 
returned to Vera Cruz from Mexico City. The norther had 
gone, leaving the people with usual unruffled temper. Al- 
though bandits were shooting up and burning trains within 
an hour's ride of the city, the citizens were unconcerned and 
sat around as usual, sipped coffee and chocolate and smoked 
cigarets. Hurricanes and revolutions do not disturb them 



116 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

and they continue to pursue the even tenor and "base" of 
their way. 

The Diligeneias was our hotel and we had a big room that 
faced the plaza. In the morning we could see the sun gild 
the old cathedral tower and walls, hear the birds tell their 
family secrets in shrill voice, and look down in the park at the 
poor Avho had made the hard benches their bed and were 
still sleeping on them. 

The "zopilotes," birds of "prey," were early massed every 
morning on the church roof and dome. They are very 
religious, and though they have roof-garden parties in other 
places of the city, their main place of meeting is the roof of 
the church. These buzzards seem to know that the cathedral 
is sadly run down and in need of paint and decoration, so 
they meet and deposit a thick coat of lime all over it. 
Vultures love corruption — the reason, undoubtedly, why they 
light on this cathedral. Speaking of corruption recalls the 
time when Vera Cruz was one of the worst pest holes in the 
world. The death rate then, like the rates of living now, 
was high. It was not uncommon to have forty yellow fever 
or smallpox deaths per day. Foreigners were the first to die. 
Science discovered that the mosquito was the cause and put 
him to flight. Today Vera Cruz, comparatively speaking, is 
a healthy city, though while we were here there were some 
smallpox and yellow fever cases and much of something else. 



DISEASE AND DEPRAVITY 



SiiS 



VC in Vera Cruz stands for venereal city. "El Dicta- 
men" is the leading newspaper. It has only four 
pages, yet whole columns are filled with advertised 
cures for scrofula, syphilis, locomotor ataxia and all 
the rotten ills that licentious Latin America is heir to. The 
space we give to weather reports on the front page, or to 
special news with extra headlines, is given up here to nause- 
ating ads. The first thing one sees as he enters the plaza are 
billboards, walls and buildings with sure cure ads. On the 
main street I saw merry, curious groups of men, women and 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 117 

children earnestly gazing in shop windows at photographs of 
patients cured of filthy diseases. Under each photograph was a 
name and address which the crowd was making a mental note 
of for future reference. If Vera Cruz had a "safety-first" 
eugenic bureau, similar to the one in Wisconsin, there would 
be few legal weddings. 

L A in Latin America stands for licentious animals. In 
Vera Cruz, city of the "true cross," the principal male pastime 
is to talk about girls and not of God. From 4 p. m. to 2 a. m. 
men sit in the plaza portales drinking, smoking, telling dirty 
stories and talking about the women who pass by. The lead- 
ing subject of "town talk" is girls, the one they went to the 
movie with last, the other one the night before, and the one 
they hoped to get tonight. I saw them flirt, though I couldn't 
understand their loud laughs and earnest talk. I asked my 
Spanish-speaking friend what it was all about. He replied, 
' ' Guilty love. ' ' Even Americans who stay here very long fall 
into the same habit. One can't talk five minutes to a citizen 
of Vera Cruz without having the conversation turn to girls. 
A European told me he could scarcely make a good sale of 
his specialties. When he thought he had the full attention of 
the buyer, the man would suddenly cry, "There she goes," 
and dart out of the doorway after a skirt, returning after a 
while to say, "You should have seen the dame I met last 
night." 

Literature in the book stores is not only imported smut 
from Spain and Havana and questionable classics, but filthy 
novels and salacious stories. Kespectable couples are made to 
blush here three times a day, when they sit down to eat, at the 
suggestive sex designs of bread and pastry, which look as if 
made in a Pompeiian bake shop. There was no mistake about 
the bad baker's design who moulded his bad thoughts into 
bad form, his bread suggesting the vile bread of life his soul 
fed on. Boys and men comment on this Priapean pastry in 
words calculated to spoil any but a Mexican's appetite. This 
is old as Rome and as rotten. In the classics we read that the 
ancient Romans reclined at tables painted with lascivious pic- 
tures and carved with indecent puppets, and were surrounded 
by slaves ready to pick their toe-nails and wash their feet in 
wine, or hand them feathers with which to gag and vomit. 



118 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

Harlots fanned them and "softeners" rubbed their limbs while 
they drank wines mixed with perfumes from Priapean cups, 
gorged on wild boar, nightingales and ostrich brains, and 
pastry in the shape of a phallus. 

You are soon known here by the company you keep or 
keep away from. A resident told me that if one were foolish 
enough to be seen walking in the plaza with a pretty girl one 
night, it would not simply be the talk of the town for the 
week, but he would be compelled to lock his hotel door 
against the bargain counter rush of frail, female friends. 

An old U. S. miner, who had been here many years, affirmed 
the Mexican boy was as bright, good and obedient to his par- 
ents as any boy in the world until he was about fifteen years 
old. Then his nature utterly changes and his name becomes 
Don Juan. This isn't a temporary sidetrack but the main 
line of his life until he enters Death's depot. Not only moun- 
tain bandits commit atrocities on women, but city boys and 
men kill their dancing partners with worse than Apache vice 
and violence. The word "morality" is not in Mexican liter- 
ature or life. At the wharf half-naked, starved girls beg for 
bread and sell themselves to the sailors for cake or candy. 

The people make themselves a sewer for immoral filth; 
court the devil Lust that eats and burns up their blood ; are 
spendthrifts of body and soul ; waste their inheritance to pur- 
chase dirty, loathed disease; pawn their bodies to a dry-rot 
evil; make themselves patients for Lust's rendezvous, a hos- 
pital, where their bill-of-fare is pills, not beef, and the doc- 
tor's bill is longer than the moral law they have violated. 
What I have said here about Vera Cruz morals applies to the 
rest of Mexico where conditions are the same or worse. 

Vice in high places and leading avenues has its influence 
on the lower classes. The same immorality publicly seen 
among officers and generals is found among the common 
people. If old age is aghast at such conduct what shall we 
say of youth, who sees vice and anarchy on every side — 
of youth, in its critical period, with examples of open violation 
of purity by military officers? 

If a Mexican sees a girl he likes, he doesn't take the 
trouble to court or marry her, but lives with her until tired 
of her, then casts her out for some other new fancy. Inci- 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 119 

dentally, there is marital laxity in all countnes, but in Mexico 
it is the rule, and free love goes to all lengths. 

Formerly the church charged such exorbitant marriage 
fees that most of the poor were unable to afford a vv^edding 
ceremony and were not married. Even now, with a civic cere- 
mony, they have not formed the marriage habit, and live 
together unmarried. If this relation were permanently mono- 
gamous it would not be so bad, if they didn't change their 
wives oftencr than they changed their dirty clothes. Gen- 
erally there is no more sense of love, decency and morality in 
their homes than the pigs and dogs have that run in and out 
of their adobe houses. Old men have love affairs with young 
girls and young boys with old women. It doesn't induce 
cleanliness or morality for a whole family of ten or fifteen 
to live in one room and bring up children like a litter of 
puppies. At the age of eight boys are wise beyond their years. 
At fifteen they are young Don Juans. It is horriblly shocking 
to us in America, but in Mexico it is not even a matter of 
comment. All this Mexican immorality suggests India, where 
love ripens and rots before twelve years of age. In the United 
States, when most young girls of twenty are looking for a 
husband, their Indian sisters here, of the same age, are wives, 
mothers, grandmothers and old women, world-weary and 
wrecked. 

The high and low classes in Mexico are as immoral as 
those of Spain and Latin America. The girls are hot-house 
plants. They tinkle the piano, make love and lace, read pious 
meditations, flirt when they get a chance and run away with 
the first gay Lochinvar who rides by. 



TRAIN "DESPATCHERS" 

T WAS as difficult and dangerous to reach Mexico 

City from here as for Cortez when he wanted to call 

on Montezuma. My plan was to go from Vera Ci'uz 

to Mexico City, but the agent said it wasn't safe, 

that he wouldn't make the trip for a thousand dollars. No 




120 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

one could tell when the train went. Often you went to 
the station to find there was no train and no explanation, 
I might, be able to get up part of the way, maybe all of the 
way, but life in Mexico is uncertain enough without such a 
risk. He consoled me with the statement that the bandits 
were not such expert dynamiters between Tampico, Monterey 
and Mexico City, and it would be "safer" to go that way 
since bandits only burned up trains there instead of using 
dynamite. 

For the last two weeks the service between Vera Cruz and 
Mexico City had been interrupted by bandits who dynamited 
trains and killed passengers and soldiers. Then there had 
been several so-called accidental train wrecks with many fatali- 
ties. All this was on the main central line. I suggested there 
was an Interocean narrow gauge line, and was told it was an 
imaginary line, narrow-guage, but the broad road to death, 
the worst shot up, held up, blown up line in all the country. 
Anyway, no one went to the capital unless it was necessary. 
Since most of the money is sent to the capital from Vera 
Cruz, the bandits plan to intercept it. The Express Company 
doesn't handle the money and it goes up under personal care. 
Moreover, most of the cargo dropped at Vera Cruz goes over 
this road and the bandits are out to get it. The bandits had 
not blown up the bridges on this road because it would have 
interrupted transportation. 

This was a sad prospect. Though it was the scenic roate, 
with marvelously beautiful mountains and valleys, I wasn't 
over anxious to go unbidden through the Valley of the Shadow 
of Death. The Vera Cruz hotels were filled with people who 
had waited weeks to go to Mexico City when the road was 
safe. U. S. Ambassador Fletcher had planned to visit the 
capital by way of Vera Cruz, but he learned it was too uncer- 
tain and unsafe. Half the time Death is the ticket-taker at 
the railroad station and gives you the pasteboard for "that 
bourne whence no traveler returns." 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 121 

VIVA JUAREZ! 



00 BAD that Mexico's great men are underground. 
Among her greatest was Benito Juarez, one of the 
sainted few who lives in the memory of the patriotic 
Mexican. His bust and statue are found in Mexican 
parks and buildings just as Washington's and Lincoln's are 
with us, and Bolivar's and Morazan's in South and Central 
America. 

"VYe were in Vera Cruz during the celebration of the one 
hundred and eleventh anniversary of Juarez' birth. The town 
was given over to holiday festivity. Morning papers flamed 
with his picture, history and editoral and poetic comment. 

Juarez was an Indian fighter, governor of Oaxaca, his native 
state, and the life of the Liberal party. He was exiled when 
Santa Anna became dictator. When the republic was restored 
he came back to Mexico. The Liberal president was over- 
thrown in 1858. Juarez was the president of the Supreme 
Court, a position equal to that of vice-president, in his case a 
position without vice. He immediately took over the govern- 
ment but was forced to retire and went to Vera Cruz, where 
he and his government were recognized by the U. S. in 1859. 
Juarez' chief opponent was Miramon, the clerical, the chief 
executive of the reactionary party. But Juarez gave him a one 
two punch in 1860 that knocked him down and out. It cost 
money to fight, the treasury was exhausted during the Civil 
War, debts piled up, Juarez was forced to suspend payment 
and England, France and Spain intervened. Spain came over 
in 1861 but withdrew, and she and England left the field to 
the French, who loaded, aimed and fired, changed the govern- 
ment into an empire and set the Archduke Maximilian of 
Austria on the throne. 

The story is a sad and short one. Maximilian was sent 
to Mexico where he became a clerical tool to carve out a new 
St. Peter's in Mexico City. In 1867 he was court-martialed 
and shot in Queretaro, and Juarez became the people's choice 
for a second term. 

Benito was a rare old Ben and no has-been. He made 
good and was re-elected in 1871. His defeated enemies 
gnashed their teeth with rage and plotted against him with 



122 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

hellish ingenuity, foes instigated revolts and rebellions, but 
he fought them, hung their political scalps on his belt and was 
the big chief and victor when he died July 18, 1872. Like 
Grant, Juarez was a man of few words and many deeds, brave 
of intent and honest of purj^ose. 

On his foundation work arose ^Mexico's greatness and 
grandeur. No jealous, ignorant, bigoted or lying enemy has 
been able to blacken his glorious influence. Intelligent, honest, 
brave, rich not in wealth but worth, he divorced church and 
state and laid down the law which comes down to us under 
the head of "Laws of Reform." They were in advance of 
their time, too heavy for "children" to understand. The dust 
of years settled on them, and when Carranza came to town, 
he took the cue from Juarez, brushed them up. annotated them 
and made them the basis of his new Constitution at Queretaro. 
As laws are made against criminals, so these reform laws w^ere 
made against the criminal life and practice of a church greedy, 
grasping, political, perfidious, robbing, revolting, exacting and 
reactionary. But she is a wily criminal and manages to get 
the money and political pull necessary to get around any law 
divine or human that tries to reform her. 

At this celebration bands played and school children pa- 
raded, waving Mexican paper flags and banners, and carrying 
great floral wreaths. The sidewalks were packed and the bal- 
conies crowded. We fell in line and marched until we came to 
the plaza with its big statue of Juarez. Here the children laid 
their wreaths and covered the base of the statue. They sang 
patriotic songs, keeping time with banners. Embryo orators 
spouted and candy and peanut sellers mingled their cries wdth 
the polished periods of the orators and the melody of the 
band. Then came the national air and off came the hats of 
rich merchant, ragged peon, government official, warship 
sailor and laborer. Off came mine, not to Carranza or the 
Mexican flag, but to the bronze statue of Juarez. There he 
stood, 'mid all this cheering multitude, unmoved on his pedes- 
tal, looking down kindly on his people as if he were well 
pleased by their oration and ovation. As he stood above them 
in the attitude of an orator, with his left hand on his heart, 
a manuscript in his right hand and the throng below, I thought 
I heard him say, "Thank you, my children, I love you. Don't 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 123 

forget my advice. Follow my reform laws and you will be 
happy and prosperous for evermore." 

The sun set, as it always has, only this time it splashed 
its gold all over the statue of Juarez and his admirers. As I 
left him and the citizens, he had the middle of the stage, the 
palms were waving about him and the spotlight of the setting 
sun made him stand out as one of the great actors on the 
stage of Mexican history. 

That night Vera Cruz crowded into the plaza and filled the 
hundreds of extra chairs that had been placed there at so much 
per. Yet there was no music. The country is poor, Mexican 
bands have given way to the bandit. The band we heard in 
the afternoon, even for that special occasion, was very ama- 
teurish. There was nothing for the throng to do but to look 
at one another, promenade around the little walk and laugh, 
flirt and talk. 

The government has built a big promenade by the sea in 
imitation of the Malecon at Havana. Here the people walk at 
sunset, look out to the sea and parade under the large electric 
lights at night — when the norther does not break the lights or 
flood the pavement. 



AFLOAT AGAIN 

T" HE. "norther" had come and gone, but the sea was 

still enraged at his visit. So was Captain Smith at 
a white slave, with a red coat, who had been brought 
on board by a Mexican in spite of his order, through 
some bribe. This is an old ship game captains have to fight 
along this coast. It is difficult to keep the boats here or on 
the Pacific from becoming floating assignation houses. 

Captain Smith was an uncommon man with a common 
name. Short and round as a tub of butter, he was a sort of 
sea-faring Santa Clans. He had red face, white hair, gray 
mustache and looked like a flying Dutchman in his baggy 
breeches. At first I thought the boat was rolling from the 
after wake of the norther, but changed my opinion when the 
captain moved to the port side, for the ship listed with him. 



He was a jolly friend to me, three hundred pounds of jest and 



124 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

jollity. He was a fine story-teller, not especially for Sunday 
school entertainments and church conventions, but for lodges 
and stag parties. This sea-dog had many tales of the sea. 
He entertained us in his room by the hour. When I think of 
him and his ship I give "three cheers and one cheer more" 
for Captain Smith of the "Monterey." 

I thought I was sea-sick proof, but you never can tell 
when your stomach will be as unreliable and unmanageable as 
a horse, auto or woman. The norther had kicked the waves 
up until the sea was as humpy as the hilly shore. I sat 
bundled up in my steamer chair working the mind over matter 
racket until I had little mind and it mattered less what I 
thought. I rested up enough to go to the table every meal, 
but it was very difficult to control my feelings. The cabin 
was stuffy and smelly, the food unattractive and the big cap- 
tain, who sat next and was sorry for me, kept asking me to 
order something light and easily digested, such as greasy soup, 
corn beef and cabbage, pork, beans, and other things, the 
very names of which set my stomach in a state of Mexican 
rebellion and revolution. 



OIL FACTORIES AND OLFACTORIES 

T'S only a day and a night to Tampico from Vera 
Cruz and ours was the first boat within a month. 
Naturally it was crowded and among its varied pas- 
senger list there was an unusual number of Germans, 
so many in fact, that I could easily imagine I was once again 
sailing down the Rhine. They were exclusive, quiet and only 
spoke among themselves on the deck or in the smoke room. 
Why? Ask the Kaiser. 

You smell Tampico long before you see it. We were 
waked up early by a loud odor and in the dark I imagined I 
was under my auto fixing something, while the gasoline and 
oil dripped in my face. Later when I went on deck I found 
the odor worse and was nearly floored by it. All passengers 
were up early at the bar at the mouth of the Panuco river. 
The sun rose and the oil-covered water made us think we 




THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 125 

were sailing among the isles of Grease. An oil-tanker, with 
the U. S. flag painted on her sides, was anchored near shore. 
As we sailed by we hoisted the Mexican flag of red, white and 
green, but it became tangled in the ropes, was torn and 
flapped against the steel mast as if it were ashamed of its his- 
tory in the presence of our flag floating at the stern. I hoped 
it was prophetic, that in reparation for the insults Old Glory 
had received here at Tampico, and all through Mexico, our 
flag would proudly float over the whole country from the Rio 
Grande to Guatemala, and that the Mexican rag flag would 
hang its head in shame and the winds of heaven refuse to 
kiss and float it. 

The Panuco bar is unsafe, like many other bars in town. 
The mouth of the Panuco, of course, is near the bar. Until oil 
was discovered in the vicinity, Tampico was an unimportant 
port. Now oil tanks with their industry and wealth seem to 
have gown up like mushrooms in a night. 

However poetic and romantic it reads to sail up the Panuco 
river to Tampico, the reality is prose fact. It sounds tropic, 
but the air was chilly from the recent norther. Though it 
was suppopsed to be a warm sail I nearly froze coming to this 
tropical town and entered all wrapped up in an overcoat. 

There were oil-tanks on the banks and oil-tankers in the 
water. The English boats were carrying fuel for British 
dreadnaught dogs of war and, although it was early, the 
Panuco was as busy as the Thames. On shore the wort 
trains were fi.lled with laborers thick as flies on fly-paper. 
Engines were puffing and pulling in every direction. There 
was oil everywhere — in oil factories and our olfactories. 
Nero could have made human lamp posts and illuminations at 
small expense here. Tampico oil, instead of smoothing trou- 
bled waters, has added fuel to flame, whether in rival oil com- 
panies, U. S. investments or German plots. The very atmos- 
phere is combustible. Every one has an oilyagenous look as 
if he drank oil and oil were his water of life. "What the steel 
blast is to Pittsburgh, the stockyards to Chicago and brew- 
eries to Milwaukee, oil is to Tampico. 

One thing I "did like was the sight of our gunboats, flag 
and boys in the harbor. I hoped if we fell into any trouble 
on shore, orders would not come from Washington, as had 



126 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

happened once before, to have them pull out and leave good 
Americans in distress with no protection against Mexican 
murder except from English and German vessels. 

The I\Iexican gunboat was up by the wharf being repaired. 
It had attempted to go out in the river, nearly sank and was 
towed in, rusted_ and ruined by the don't care policy of Mexico. 

The name Tampico is malodorous to good Americans. It 
was here that innocent men, women and children were threat- 
ened, robbed, insulted and terrified by a Mexican mob and left 
in the lurch by our government. 



RED-TAPE 



THE traveler in Mexico needs passports and medical 
O. K. certificates at every port. You may pass one 
Mexican port but that will not permit you to enter 
another Mexican port a day away. This is not 
simply because they fear you may contract some fever or 
plague in transit, but to keep tab on every traveler, as well as 
to give officials a chance to make some extra additions to their 
graft fund. 

At Tampico a new piece of red-tape was unrolled. No ship 
passenger could leave without a passport. AVe had no pass- 
ports to Mexico but showed the officer a West Indies one, and 
a handful, not of gold, but of gilt stamped documents and 
letters. It was our last chance, for if we failed here our 
Mexican trip was a fool's errand and we could not get into 
the interior. 

This time I did not feel sorry that a Mexican was illiterate, 
not only in his own but in a foreign language. One by one 
I opened the letters and laid them before him — letters from 
senator, governor, mayor and chief of police. He was em- 
barrassed, dazed, and hesitated. Then I pla3'ed my last card 
and showed him the American passport to the West Indies 
which was perfectly worthless here. The officer scrutinized it 
carefully, as if he were the Rhadamanthus of Mexico's Inferno, 
and must be careful not to let a good man in. He looked to 
his assistants and they to him, and rather than have it appear 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 127 

that he could not understand the papers, he acted as if they 
were satisfactory, gave us permission to get off the boat and 
take all possible chances and risks. 



TAMPICO TRAMPS 



ALLAH be praised! The first man I met on the dock 
was an American who had just arrived from Mexico 
City, but my joy faded away when he informed me 
that what I supposed was a safe route between Tam- 
pico and Mexico City, had just proved to be a very dangerous 
one to him. The train ahead of his, the day before, had been 
held up and burned between Tampico and Monterey. He 
thought if I went up the next day I might get there between 
showers of bullets. I asked why I couldn't take the short 
route from Tampico to San Luis Potosi and not go way around 
to Monterey. He said this line hadn't been running for 
weeks, and when it did, it didn't go far. 

However, deciding to take a chance and leave next morn- 
ing, we immediately set about to see everything in Tampico 
and make the most of it as if it were our last day on this 
planet. I can imagine how a convict in prison or soldier in 
trenches feels the day before the fateful tomorrow. 

At the foot of the big steel bridge which leads to the town, 
we overtook some U. S. marines. When they saw we were 
Americans and wanted their pictures for the home papers, 
they gladly posed. The market is on the waterfront and 
resembles a commercial regatta with all the canoes drawn up. 
Natives had come down the river bringing produce and I 
watched some cooking their dinners in the bottoms of the 
canoes. From the looks of the vegetables piled up in the 
market one would think they had never been near water. 
Tampico 's climate is humid, hot and unhealthy — especially 
for Americans, who are attacked, not only by yellow fever, 
but by Mexican mobs. She has exported most of the Ameri- 
cans and on account of the revolution her exports have fallen 
off in respect to bullion, sugar, hides, fibre, cattle, cotton- 
seed, coffee, sarsaparilla, rubber, broom-root, ores and asphalt. 



128 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

We went up town, climbing a stone stairway like the one 
in Santiago, Cuba. The steps were broad and high, and 
being a heavy man I was thankful it was not an every day 
climb. The. plaza was dreary as a desert and hot as a frying- 
pan. I pitied the statue of the martyred patriot who was 
sizzling in it. It cooled off enough at night for us to sit in 
the sagging bench seats and listen to the band as it played 
lively airs to livelier boys and girls. The plaza is surrounded 
by cheap hotels and dear cafes. 

The cathedral is located in the main plaza. Its spires 
were raised like hands to heaven and the strings of govern- 
ment wireless stretched betwen them like skeins of yarn. 
These spires were useful as well as beautiful. No matter 
what messages had been received from within the church, the 
government made sure of some messages from the outside. 
At first I thought these wires were tight-ropes for some 
angelic performance to please tlie simple natives ; a clothes- 
line on which to hang the sacred vestments ; a phone wire 
from a captive in one tower to a fair one in another. Did 
the people send prayers or receive heavenly messages on this 
wireless? Not much. The government stands for govern- 
ment and not God, and has erected this wireless for business 
reasons plain, earthly and practical. 

From this dead, empty church we strolled to the Presby- 
terian church. It was closed but there was a school next 
door full of scholars. As we looked in a kindly old gentle- 
man came to the door, greeted us in English and invited us 
in. He and his wife taught the Mexican children English, 
and among other needed things, honesty, for when I went 
away I left my card and pocketbook on the desk by mis- 
take, with my money, the only true passport here. I missed 
it and hurried back to find it untouched, and was so grateful 
that I asked for a picture of the only honest people I had 
so far found in Mexico. 

The coal used here is charcoal. I saw a little, dirty fellow 
on a doTikey with two sacks of charcoal roped over the don- 
key's back. Both would have made a picturesque charcoal 
sketch for an artist. 

American men and money have done much here. From 
being a small fishing town with a dangerous and unsafe bar, 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 129 

a little seaport of Tamaulipas on the Panuco five miles from 
the Gulf of Mexico and 235 miles northwest of Vera Cruz, 
Tampico has become the chief seaport city of Mexico. Tam- 
pieo's big steel and concrete buildings seem very un-Mexican. 
She is the hated rival of Vera Cruz and her business hustles 
and hums. These tvs^o sisters by the sea are rivals in the 
attempt to woo and win industry and wealth from U. S. and 
Europe. 



AN INFERNAL SHAME 

THE three most interesting eyesore spots to a real 
American in Tampico, not found in guide or folder, 
are Sanborn's and the Imperial and Southern 
Hotels. If the powers that be at Washington ever 
come here I wish I could pilot them free of charge and point 
out and explain what happened here April 6 to 11, 1915. 

These are the damned blood spots that will not out. A 
piece of recent history was written here that disgraced the 
United States in the eyes of heaven and earth. Tampico 
temperature is blood-heat and the thought of this unpunished 
outrage makes one's blood boil. 

On board the ''Esperanza" Captain Curtis showed me a 
printed statement of the facts, given to the people of the 
United States by 372 Tampico refugees aboard his ship, when 
she lay in quarantine in Galveston harbor. It told how there 
had been a battle between the Federals and Rebels in the 
suburbs of Tampico from April 6th to 11th. American prop- 
erty had been destroyed and the Americans had been driven 
from their homes and occupations. The Mexicans blamed 
the Americans for all the troubles of the past three years. 
Our flagship "Dolphin," the cruiser ''Chester" and the gun- 
boat "Des Moines" were in the harbor and stripped for 
action. Suddenly April 21st they raised anchor and sailed 
tranquilly out to sea, leaving 2,000 Americans unprotected. 
No explanation was offered and they waited outside for the 
Mexican gunboats to come out. "When news of the battle of 
Vera Cruz reached Tampico, Mexican armed mobs howled for 
blood. English and German citizens appealed to their con- 



130 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

suls and were hurried to their respective ships. A mob of 
about 600 I\[exieans smashed the American hotel and resi- 
dences, vt^recked Sanborn's American drug store and beat 
against the Southern hotel doors for two hours thirsting for 
American blood and possession of the American flag that 
floated over the hotel. That flag remained floating at mid- 
night. Two German officers of the "Dresden" appeared on 
the scene and informed the Mexican mob that if it did not 
disperse they would fire and disperse it. Then they rescue^ 
the hotel refugees at midnight in a drenching storm and took 
them aboard the "Dresden." 

In this manner good American citizens were sneaked out 
of Tampico on ships flying German and British flags, com- 
manded by German and British officers. The American yatch 
"Wild Duck," to which the Americans w^ere transferred from 
the "Dresden," sailed out to the American fleet at sea, flying 
the German flag and in command of a German naval officer 
of the cruiser "Dresden." What a spectacle of the Ameri- 
can administration's blundering stupidity and of the humilia- 
tion of 2.000 disgraced Americans at Tampico. The Ameri- 
can consul did all that was possible to protect the Americans, 
but finally, like the other deserted Americans, left Tampico 
on a British ship under a British flag. During all this time 
American women were refused asylum on British ships until 
British women were aboard. 



TREATY AND ENTREATY 



OUR treaty with Mexico is a "scrap of paper." Our 
q:overnment was deaf to American entreaty. The 
light failed when most we needed it. Just when we 
expected Mexico would be compelled to live up to 
her treaty promises, and if she did not, intervention would 
surely come, Americans were told to hurry and get out of 
the country. This meant but one thing, even a thick-headed 
Mexican could see that, that the U. S. neither cared to nor 
had she the courage to protect her citizens. So obedient 
Americans picked up and pulled out from ranches and cities, 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 131 

suffering loss and injujry and receiving no reparation or reim- 
bursement. Our citizens v^ere shipped away in rotten, unsafe 
hulks like so many cattle, quarantined in American ports and 
laughed at and scorned by their own people. This was a 
striking contrast to the way we transported the conspirator, 
Felix Diaz, on an American battleship, two of the Madero 
family sent by our cruiser to Havana, and at the beginning 
of the European war when the U. S. sent a battleship and 
$100,000 in gold for embarrassed Americans. Why the dif- 
ference? These Americans in Mexico were law-abiding. It 
was no fault of theirs, but of our government, yet they suf- 
fered. Then insult was added to injury. At Galveston 
Daniels dumped the Americans who had left their homes and 
their business. When a chosen committee of refugees went 
to Washington and asked that the Americans be returned to 
Mexico, since regular steamer passage had been suspended, 
and that they might protect their property, since our govern- 
ment could not, they were told by this "Daniels come to 
judgment" that if they had been worth their salt they would 
never have left their country. A second time they went to 
Josephus, who showed his colossal ignorance by saying he 
didn't see how the government had failed to offer protection 
by ordering the American ships out to the Gulf of Mexico, 
utterly ignorant of the fact that Tampico was seven miles up 
the Panuco river. The president was busy, Bryan was skep- 
tical and finally the refugees at Galveston boarded the trans- 
ports which were furnished them, after being compelled to 
sign a document that they were going back to Tampico at 
their own risk and would waive any protection from the 
U. S. As Senator Baker said to a committee of Americans 
who sought his help in March, 1915, after they had gone to 
Mexico, "They went at their own peril" and "from the 
time they crossed the Rio Grande the interest and respons- 
ibility of the U. S. in them and in their safety ceased." All 
the while the well-fed, ignorant stay-at-homes smiled at the 
Washington policy and echoed sentiments of approval by 
practically saying, "Served you right, you took a chance, you 
knew what you'd get, now what are you kicking about?" 

Can you beat it? Compare in contrast this government 
position with what William M. Evarts, our former Secretary 



132 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

under President Hayes, wrote May 32, 1915: "The first duty 
of a government is to protect life and property. This is a para- 
mount obligation. For this governments are instituted and 
governments neglecting or failing to perform it become worse 
than useless." 

In 1910, in reply to Porfirio Diaz' invitation and a treaty 
guarantee of property and life, fifty thousand Americans 
went to Mexico, risking their life, family, comfort and money 
to get in the financial game. Mexico gave us the Macedonian 
cry, through the lips of Porfirio Diaz, "Come over and help 
us." It was heard and we hustled. We sent over our mer- 
chants and mechanics and the result was that industries in 
gold, oil, machinery and every department were improved by 
good and generous men. There were some few scoundrels. 
Even Judas got in among the disciples, but as a rule the 
Americans who went W'ere honorable. Of course they were 
able to make money — they went for that very purpose — but 
at the same time they enabled the Mexicans to help them- 
selves, for their wages were increased and matters of educa- 
tion, sanitation and care of the sick were improved. They 
gave the natives good wages, urging them to spend their 
money to best advantage for that which should uplift and not 
debauch them. Heretofore, there had been but two classes and 
our men made possible a "third estate," or middle-class 
between the master and slave. Mexicans were given higher 
positions on the farm and in the factories, and good wages 
that brought about better homes, food and clothing. They 
were so successful that our American trade with Mexico was 
60 per cent of all she had. As usual, jealous and ungrateful 
Mexico hated any one who made her industrious or better, 
but this hate or indifference was not to be expected from our 
government Avhich left these "uplift" Americans and their 
families in the lurch at Tampico to be murdered, or to get 
away from murderous Mexicans the best way they could. 

American investors received concessions from the Mexican 
government, paid good monej^ for them and received permis- 
sion to do business. The word "concession" is equivalent to 
the word, "license." "When you get a concession in any 
business you pay the patriot revolutionist a certain amount to 
keep it from being destroyed. This is called "self-protec- 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 133 

tion." Of course there is struggle for success or monopoly 
in business, as in government and religion, but American 
business methods in Mexico have never been harmful to the 
laboring class. They have not exploited them but have 
exerted good and helpful influence. If there were some pos- 
sible exceptions they only proved the general rule. 

These Americans were called by our government ''ex- 
ploiters," "vultures" and "harpies." Although our men 
went at the risk of health and money, not as Spaniards to 
enslave and exploit, but to better conditions and open mines, 
"Washington put them in the cutthroat class. Without our 
aid Mexicans would be in the back ranks of undeveloped Cen- 
tral America. It was our men who made this desert blossom 
like a rose. We were the Doctor Franklins and Edisons to 
draw and harness the useless lightning. Had we not done all 
this the English and Germans would have done it for them- 
selves and their country. This would not only have brought 
money but an embarrassing strain on the Monroe Doctrine. 

Mexico is the dust in our eye, the stone in our shoe and 
the briar in our finger, socially, financially and politically. 
U. S. treats Americans in Mexico like the devil and the Mexi- 
cans politely tell us to go to hell. In spite of the smooth 
speech of Washington orators we are treated as escaped crim- 
inals and are hated and plotted against. 

Our trouble in Mexico is not so much from foreign enemies 
and interests as it has been our home enemies at Washington 
who failed to protect our citizens and their interests. Ameri- 
can investors in Mexico are not babies but men. They are not 
asking for favors but for rights, the treaty rights of 1831, and 
are praying the God of Nations to give them a government at 
Washington, of, by and for the people, which Avill not give 
them over to Mexican mobs in disregard of national precedent 
and present fair demands. 

It did look as if things might be settled in 1913. Secre- 
tary Knox told Huerta that Uncle Sam wouldn't speak to and 
recognize him unless he had a political house-cleaning, set- 
tled his claims, gave satisfaction for loss of American life and 
property and promised in good faith to do better. President 
Wilson was elected. He declared that the American had con- 
stitutional rights to be protected on the borders and through- 



134 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

out the world, and that having a passport in any foreign coun- 
try he was "entitled to and must be given the full protec- 
tion of the U. S. government both for himself and his prop- 
erty." President Wilson watchfully waited. The murder 
and robbery of Americans went on. 



A DE"LIND"QUENT DIPLOMUT 



TtlEN he sent that Swedish nightingale, John Lind, 
to tell Huerta to pack up his trunk and sail away. 
This diplomat was farther away in his language, 
logic, love and learning in Mexican matters than 
he was from his native land. Gamboa was Huerta 's foreign 
secretary and Lind told him if he and his cabinet would get 
away from Huerta, leave him iu the lurch and Huerta stepped 
out, the U. S. Avould give the Mexican government, then so 
hard up, the money needed. Gamboa had lived in the bribery 
atmosphere of Mexico but this was too much, and with choking 
utterance he assured John Lind and his master at Washington 
in the folloving classic Avords that there was nothing doing: 
"No loan from American bankers could be large enough to 
induce the Mexican government to renounce the sovereign 
rights of the nation and to permit its dignity to be lessened." 
Then the Mexican press proudly roared through its 
columns and boasted its superiority over Washington. As 
for J. L., they laughed loud and long from capital to coast. 
In palace, parlor and pulque shop he was the butt, the he-goat 
of ridicule — a common subject of censure, comment, cursing 
and caricature in public and private. To make it plain to the 
peons, who could not read, the press pictured him as the 
Devil's' Ass and started a comic weekly called "Mister Lind." 
"Mister," mind you, not Honorable, or American or represen- 
tative, or President Wilson's intimate friend, but just plain, 
undignified, despised, "mister"— a mere man to be desig- 
nated by an epithet of scorn and ridicule by their people. 
"Good-bye, John, don't stay long" slang never touched him, 
for most of the time he stayed at Vera Cruz away from the 
capital, its business and its bother and as the special envoy of 




AN AZTEC TRINITY 



MEXICO 




DEPARTED WORTH 



PLAZA. MEXICO CITY 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 135 

President Wilson busily employed himself diplomatically 
drinking eoiifee in the portales and having a restful time with 
the American consul. 

I met and talked with many people in Vera Cruz, both 
Spanish and American, who had seen and met Mr. L. What 
they said of his diplomacy would prevent this book going 
through the mail. His chief at Washington seemed to forget 
him or had nothing for him to do, so there sat our friend 
watching and waiting to do something, God only knows what. 

That "personal envoy" sent to Mexico to discredit U. S. 
Ambassador Lane proved himself to be a diploraut and de- 
LINDquent. The Bible says: "There was a man sent from 
God, whose name was John." But I am morally sure that 
it does not refer to John Lind's mission to Mexico. 

President Wilson told Congress that John Lind had dis- 
charged his mission with "singular tact." It is generally 
conceded that said John should never have been sent. "Singu- 
lar" he was no doubt; as to "tact," he came back intact 
with no good contact of the American-Mexico problem and 
has been attacked ever since. 



DUB DIPLOMACY 



DIPLOMACY in the time of Benjamin Franklin meant 
chivalry, courage and sacrifice; now it is a chess- 
board on which to play a game for position, power 
and plunder. The office of diplomut today means 
to travel about, be well housed, to hobnob with other diplo- 
muts, to ride in state, to be invited to functions, to move in a 
little world of its own, and from its exalted position watch 
the common people go by ; to go to church Sunday and occupy 
a prominent pew, and then return to headquarters and plan 
to pull wires, prevaricate, evade, suppress truth and juggle 
justice. 

To gain the good opinion of foreign nations, the diplomut 
loses the respect of his own. He is as silent as the Sphynx, 
except at after dinner speeches. When you ask him a ques- 
tion he replies in a way to illustrate the definition of 
language as a something to "conceal thought." 



136 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

Selfishness reigns in the diplomut's unpatriotic bosom. A 
man may be a Christian when he goes into diplomatic poli- 
tics, but if he stays long enough he will wear out his religion. 
Many an official goes in John and comes out Judas. 

The diplomatic minister believes in a religion of lies, 
prates piously, spins thin theories and falls short in doing 
practical things ; thinks more of rules than of rights, of words 
than of deeds, of policies, than of principles ; adopts the Latin- 
American motto of "Manana" and makes it the rule of his 
life. Educated in the school of subtle diplomacy, he gradu- 
ates and receives the degrees of D. D., LL. D. — "Doctor of 
Duplicity" and "Life-Long Delay." 

The Devil was the first diplomat and this "Father of Lies" 
has many children in official positions. Too often our foreign 
misrepresentatives suggest the classic definition of an ambas- 
sador, "An honest man sent to lie abroad for his country." 

No word came, the bad grew worse, Mexicans grew bolder, 
insults more frequent, lives and property were threatened and 
W. J. B., awakening from a graj)ejuicc debauch, sent word to 
the Mexican authorities that they would "be strictly account- 
able for any harm done to Americans, or injury done to their 
property." Instead of holding this Mexican bull by the nose- 
ring of treaty, President Wilson told the Americans to pack 
up and leave, making it painfully clear to them that they were 
like "The Man Without a Country." Time came and went, 
more speeches were made and notes were written. Swinging 
from our policy of non-interference, we told Huerta to 
get out, not caring whether he went to either place 
spelled by the first letter of his name. The embargo 
on ammunition to Mexico, which had been placed by 
President Taft, was lifted. We tried to keep arms from being 
landed to Huerta and to force him to salute the flag, but he 
got the stuff and didn't salute Old Glorj^ 

During the ABC Conference ammunition was under an 
embargo but Mr. Lind's advice permitted 3,000,000 rounds of 
ammunition to get into Tampico instead of being sent to Ha- 
vana, for an alleged reason of "stress of weather." 

The Conference didn't learn its alphabet of ABC. We 
landed at Vera Cruz, Huerta went, meantime hell was to pay. 
Americans didn't want intervention, hadn't asked for inter- 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 137 

vention and simply wanted peace and protection. Mexico was 
mad and murderous, Americans were their hated victimty 
and 20,000 of our people in a strange land were ground be- 
tween the upper and nether millstones of Mexican insult and 
American indifference. There was no justice in Washington 
and no safety in Mexico. The president spread a banquet 
table of "service of humanity" but no Americans were asked 
to sit down — they were like Lazarus under the table with 
the dogs. 

America's Mexican policy is, "It is better to be killed 
than kill." We said we wouldn't meddle with the Mexican 
muss, and we did. We told Huerta to get out or we would 
kick him out. Then we shelled and occupied Vera Cruz, lost 
a score of marines and sailors and killed 200 greasers. Our 
boys became white wings and scavangers, cleaned up Vera 
Cruz and in the meantime Huerta slipped away. Five months 
later we did the same thing. 

Did Huerta kill Madero? Some say Yes, some say No. 
Should we have recognized Huerta? The answer is No and 
Yes. There are still many who believe that Huerta was inno- 
cent, that as an Indian he could rule the Mexicans and that 
he was Mexico's real choice. 

The Tampico affair offered grounds for an intervention of 
some kind. What did we do? Lay down and submitted to 
insult. Did Huerta ever salute the flag that we told him to? 
He did — not. And what of our friend Villa? We kissed and 
blessed him and kicked him and cursed him, flirted with him 
as a friend and then gave him the uppercut, jolt and jilt of an 
enemy. We never tried to catch Villa. He very de- 
cidedly came back, continues to rob and murder in North 
Mexico, and we do — nothing. The order "Villa dead or alive" 
provokes a sad smile. The U. S. officer at Columbus was 
warned of Villa's intended night-attack, but sleepily allowed 
himself to be attacked. Instead of being discharged with a 
broad, black mark against his name, he received a thick coat 
of whitewash. We sent and kept Gen. Pershing on a fool's 
errand in Mexico for political effect till after election. We 
lost in every diplomatic exchange with the Mexican Carranza 
who bullied and bluffed us. He passed us the "buck" and 
we stood with a big basket to receive it. 



138 THE DEVIL IX MEXICO 

PERSHING AND POLITICS 



PRESIDENT ^YILSOX sent Pershing with soldiers two 
or three hundred miles into Mexico to get Villa — but 
all he got was the smell of his powder. He went 
into Casas Grande Valley, settled by the Mormons. 
Instead of going for Villa and bringing him home "dead or 
alive," he just stayed there and protected the Mormons, who 
had fled there from the U. S. for polygamous practises, from 
a Villa raid. 

Salt Lake City rejoiced and was willing to pay the price 
by voting solid for Wilson, who "Kept us out of war." Persh- 
ing was withdrawn and then the ]\Iormon press charged Wil- 
son with a double cross and lack of faith. It was not the 
so-called progressiveuess of the West that elected Wilson but 
the solid I\Iormon vote in Utah, Idaho, Wyoming and Cali- 
fornia that put him in the White House. The price of their 
votes was the protection of polygamous Mormon outlaws in 
Mexico. To the usual campaign money must be added the 
negro blood poured out at the Carrizal ambuscade, and the 
money millions of the Pershing expedition in the interest of 
the Mormon vote. 

The Pershing "punitive expedition" was a farce and a 
fiasco. Washington sent this brave, brainy general, after the 
Columbus massacre, to "Get Villa dead or alive." Then Wash- 
ington, not Carranza, blocked the way. At a cost of some 
men and many millions Pershing remained, and later returned 
making a "recessional" that Kipling couldn't have described. 
Pershing didn't get the villain Villa, or protect the border, 
or offensively or defensively stimulate Carranza to get his 
hated rival. This costly blunder, like the one at Tampico and 
Vera Cruz, cheapened us in the minds of the ^lexican 
world, lowered the de facto government of Carranza in the 
minds of the Mexican, and deified Villa as Mexico's only hope. 

DIED IN VAIN 



W 



E are bound to Mexico by a rope of sand. The tears 
shed by American and Mexican diplomuts are croco- 
dile tears. Our dead at Vera Cruz. Columbus, Glen 
Springs, Parral, Carrizal San Ignaeio and elsewhere 
are unavenged so far, and appear to have died in vain. It was 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 139 

an expensive experiment. It cost soldier blood, our national 
respect and international humiliation, Mexico hates us today 
more tlian ever for butting into her affairs. We spent more 
than $100,000,000 to help Carranza get Villa. But Carranza 
didn't Vi^ant to get Villa, nor does any decent Mexican vi^ant 
him to, for Villa is a saint compared to Carranza, the idol not 
only of the peon, but of all Mexico. 

Villa vras made to walk the plank, v^e kissed Carranza and 
kicked Pancho and border troubles followed. Secretary Lan- 
sing wrote a love letter to Carranza enumerating Mexican in- 
dignities to Americans and Carranza winked, pulled his 
whiskers as if to say, "Well, what will you do about it?" 
We replied with meekness and weakness, "Hello, old man, I 
hope you will excuse us. Hope we have not troubled you by 
referring to this little matter." 

The word "duty" is spelled "duety" and refers to what 
we owe. We are to be honest to Americans before being gen- 
erous to Mexicans, After four years of destruction, murder 
and humiliation there is a dead loss of $300,000,000 of property, 
200,000 Mexican lives, 400 American lives and a loss of Ameri- 
can manhood, womanhood and self-respect. 

"He kept us out of war" was the soothing syrup Uncle 
Sam doped his children with. Ye Gods, out of war, we were 
in war all the time and he wouldn't let us fight our way out! 
We accepted Carranza, we rejected Huerta, the ABC commis- 
sion went to Niagara, took in the falls, and the world wouldn't 
have missed them if they had fallen in and been carried over 
the rapids, which would have been the only swift thing in 
their lives. Here they proceeded to fall out with each other 
and us. It's useless to mince matters. In plain words Mexico 
has either got to put up or shut up. She must control her 
border bandits, she must protect American life and property, 
must guarantee legal rights and settle all foreign and Ameri- 
can claims that are justly made. 

Our Monroe Doctrine simply means that no Old World 
power shall come to the New World territory and dominate 
it, that Latin America shall be thus far free. But the Mon- 
roe Doctrine does not mean that the U. S. has the right to 



140 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

dictate what political form of government Mexico, Central 
or South America shall have. This was the un-American thing 
and the anti-American thing — to drive Pluerta out and to 
withhold protection to our own citizens — to serve aliens and 
neglect Americans. 

"When an American traveler sits at a ]\Iexican table he 
eats out of their hand. For dessert he gets no bit of pie, 
but a large slice of "humble pie" when it comes to diplomatic 
affairs. The old proverb, "Physician, heal thyself," has a pres- 
ent, practical, political pertinenc3^ While we expect to rule 
affairs in Europe and clean up the Kaiser's shambles, we must 
not forget to keep order in our back-yard of Mexico, 

We are commanded to "love" our enemies, but the Re- 
deemer, who bade us not cast our pearls before swine, does 
not expect us to say "muchas gratias" to the Latin American 
who burns, outrages, loots and stabs us, though the "Pan- 
American" policy would have us do so. The blood of murdered 
Americans is on the head of our administration, and stains the 
plans of our Pan-American Bureau. John Barrett, its prince of 
misleaders, would rather sacrifice all United States than one 
dirty, little Latin American hot-bed of Yankeephobia between 
Mexico and Patagonia. Barrett's motto is, "Better lose ten 
thousand gringos than one greaser." 

It seems Old Glory is not big enough to shelter American 
citizens in Mexico, and that our government Avas not strong 
enough to prevent it from being taken down, as it has been 
many times, for Mexican soldiers to trample, spit upon, and 
defile with excrementitious outrage. We should stand up for 
our flag or haul it down. 

A street car pulled us up and out to the American colony. 
Here were beautiful homes and gardens, now empty and de- 
serted because there was no home protection for them. We saw 
the battlefield of the Mexican Federals and Rebels, climbed in 
trenches, stood behind fortifications made of bent railroad 
rails, heavy boards and a j)late of iron with holes in them for 
guns. It would be a sorry task for one to try to capture these 
trenches now, for they are filled with cactus, and an army of 
bristling thorns has taken possession of them. I didn't have 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 141 

to go to Europe to enter the trenches. When the Federal rob- 
bers were in Tampico they stole $30,000 worth of cattle and 
shot many others, simply stripping their hides and leaving 
the meat to rot, although natives M^ere hungry. 

The American Country Club is splendidly situated on a 
crown of a hill commanding a view of field and river valley. 
There are fine gardens, tennis-courts, and golf-links. The 
building irself is ideal for repose, rest and refreshments. It 
is very quiet now. 

The little father in "Washington advised the good Ameri- 
cans in Tampico to consult that book in the Bible called 
"Exodus." They did it, and went from Club, home and pos- 
sessions like wandering lost tribes. 

I had met Captain Seastrom at the home of Mr. Gomez in 
Progreso. His ship was in Tampico and we were invited to 
dinner. Pie proved to be a fine host. When he knew that I 
had visited his Scandinavian home, he ordered his cook to 
prepare some choice dishes. The meal we had on the Ward 
Line freight boat was better than some "eats" I have had on 
passenger ships of other lines. We sandwiched in land and 
sea stories and laughed so much that I feared it would be 
necessary for us to stop over at Progreso and call on his doc- 
tor friend for treatment. 

On the wharf my Minneapolis Y. M. C. A. friend, Maxwell, 
came and said, "Morrill, what are you doing here?" He had 
been marooned in Tampico for two weeks, and was waiting 
for his ship. Hotels had held him up, morals were low and he 
offered to be what Virgil was to Dante and guide us to Tam- 
pico 's lowest hell. 



'PLAZA DE PROSTITUTION" 



FOREIGNERS here from many different nations find 
little to do at night except to go to bed, fight mos- 
^^^ quitoes, visit clubs or sit up smoking, drinking and 
svlml gambling. After dark we boarded a street car that 
carried a big red light in front. AVhether this light was a coin- 
cidence or not, we w^ent to the end of the line and found a big 



142 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

plaza red light district. As we stepped out I asked Maxwell, 
' ' Where next ? " He replied, ' ' Here. " " What, in the plaza ? ' ' 
"Yes," he said. 

The district bounds the plaza on all sides and abounds on 
the outside streets. By this time our car passengers were all 
dispersed and visiting their favorite friends. I told Maxwell 
I thought the name of the plaza should be called "Plaza de 
Prostitution." The houses bore the satirical names of 
"Hope," "Forget-Me-Not," "Star," etc. W^ere there ever 
worse misnomers? Women trooped out of houses and wel- 
comed mounted soldiers. They held the horses' bridles and 
engaged in unbridled laugh and jest. Autos rushed here and 
there filled with soldiers, sailors, citizens and fair compan- 
ions. In some of the resorts pianos were playing, booze was 
disappearing and couples were dancing with abandon. It is 
a shady trick in many of the houses to have the lights sud- 
denly turned off while the inmates pick the pockets of the 
curious, casual caller. Most of the places were dingy, dirty 
dens of one room that opened onto the sidewalk. The door- 
ways were filled with sisters of sin, daughters of the devil, 
who made remarks to the passers-by or attempted to snatch 
their hats. These harpies of Hades were waiting to pick the 
pockets, bodies and souls of anyone who might listen to their 
siren song. It isn't surprising in a town like this to find 
obscene clay images of men and women offered for sale. 



WATCHFUL WAITING 



BACK to the boat early, for it was necessary to get up 
early to see the customs and make the six o'clock 
train for Monterey. We were our own alarm clock, 
rose at 5 A. M., stocked up in the pantry, stepped to 
the dock and submitted to official search. The officers went 
through our bags and finding nothing that they especially 
cared to keep for themselves, passed us through. It was still 
dark when we reached the station. The train came in from 
Monterey with a heavy soldier guard and a rear freight car full 
of soldiers with their women and families. The passengers 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 143 

rolled out of the cars that Avere to be made ready for us in five 
minutes, if the train was to leave at its 6 A. M. schedule. One 
glance at the passengers and I knew what the filthy condition 
of the train must be. Two men worked for fifteen minutes 
in the small first-class passenger car, sweeping up a pile 
of filth and rubbish knee-deep that would have done credit 
to a second-class horse or cattle car. Then the train pulled out 
to a side-track for something, and a man came up to the board 
and marked the train's departure at seven o'clock. 

T for Tampico and thieves. It's unsafe to put a bag down 
long enough to buy a ticket. We saw everyone sitting down 
on bag and bundle and we did the same on ours. The few 
benches were full of Indians and vermin — no one else cares to 
occupy them. The rest of the passengers huddled in heaps 
on the platform. It was a lonesome crowd. Another hour 
passed and the despatcher marked 9 o'clock on the board. 
Then two Americans sauntered slowly from the hotel. I saw 
them, thanked God and took courage, I asked them if they 
were taking this train and what had happened to it, for I 
had been there since six o'clock. They laughed and said 
the trains never went on time. We might have to wait 
three hours more before it started. 

The train marked on the board to leave Tampico for San 
Luis Potosi at 3 A. M. hadn't gone for weeks, and on the 
board was the following: "This train leaves at 8 or before." 

Finally the train came, and with it the soldiers, a pleasing 
prospect. We made a rush, threw our bags into the window, 
jumped onto the platform, piled into the car and seized a 
seat. One American proposed that I stay over Sunday in 
Tampico to see some fun for it was election day. Already 
there had been fights and shots in the political processions 
on the street and all women had been ordered indoors. No, 
thank you. 

As we passed the outskirts of the city, an American planter 
who sat next to me, pointed to a big nail stuck in a small 
platform and remarked if we had been passing by a few days 
earlier we might have seen a bandit hanging on it. This was 
cheerful. For the next forty minutes before he reached his 
plantation station, he made the few hairs of my bald head sit 
up and take notice. Although he owned a big estate, he 



144 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

apologized for his ragged clothes saying they were all he 
had. He had just visited Tampico to tell the chief of police 
the name of the rebel chief and bandit who had robbed 
him the week before. This chief had ridden with his bandit 
band right through his garden, up to his front door and had 
demanded a large sum of money for the cause of the revolu- 
tion. He told him he didn't have it and they threatened to 
take him out and hang him. He replied, "Go ahead, I can't 
give j'ou v/hat I don't have." Finding that he had no money, 
they looted his house for food, clothes and anything they 
could lay their hands on and marched off. Poor fellow ! An 
American, intelligent, gentlemanly and well to do. I sincerely 
pitied him, and admired his courage. When he left me and 
was joined by his drunken mozo, whom he had hired in Tam- 
pico, I wished him well. He gave me his card. It is a good 
name and he should make good. 

Another American on the train, who left us a little later, 
said the soldiers Carranza sent to guard the plantations from 
bandits did more lawless damage than the bandits they were 
sent to kill. He pointed to a Carranza officer behind me who 
had stolen a girl from her home as his mistress. She was 
about 14 years old and the poor thing sat crying there all 
da}' with no redress nor rescue. When these soldier brutes 
get tired of their female consorts, they hit them over the 
head with the butt of their gun, or send a bullet through 
them, cut their throats or drown them. 

While he was talking the train was slowly moving 
through tropic, green jungles. I remarked how beautiful and 
he said yes, that it was one of the most dangerous parts of 
the road for rebels, but if we reached Victoria in safety it 
would be easy from there to Monterey. Imagine how com- 
fortable and happy we felt when he got off at the next 
station and we were left alone with a carload of Mexicans. I 
felt no better when I saw a man in the seat opposite pulling 
out his big revolver, looking at it and then gazing out of the 
window. Then I noticed there were others, a dozen or more 
Mexicans, with hands on guns, looking nervously out of the 
windows. And I had nothing to shoot off but a kodak. Per. 
haps the reader tliinks we were safe because the soldiers 
were just behind us in the box car. He forgets that the ban- 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 145 

dit hates the soldiers, and that where soldiers are gathered to- 
gether bullets fly the thickest. 

During these anxious moments I sat quietly with folded 
hands, when suddenly "bang!" went a shot just back of me. 
We were all startled and jumped. Some looked out of the win- 
dows, and others "ducked." Whether the shot was from a 
bandit, or from a soldier at a bandit, or just for fun, no one 
knows, but I do know that I took no nap for the next hour. 
I could not if I wanted to, for the bugler in the back car was 
blowing bravely, to keep his courage up or to see how many 
cries of torture he could wring from his instrument. I looked 
out of the window at a square-topped mountain. It appeared 
to be a sacrificial altar for someone, and who that one was no 
one could tell. 

Our solemn train of thought was stopped when the train 
halted for lunch. It was a dismal station of wind-swept huts 
and ragged natives. It was high noon, with no shade, and 
although we were up from the sea level, the glare and heat 
were hard to beat. Yet we were expected to get out and 
sit in the sun at a little table not three feet square. 

It was comfortable for one, but five passengers were 
seated there waiting for the waiters to bring them soup, tor- 
tillas, coffee and black beans. If I had any appetite I lost it, 
so I sat watching the bags, and the soldiers asleep in the box 
car behind me, while their women prepared their meals. It 
was a hobo-looking outfit. They did not seem to be much 
protection for us, for some of the soldiers were no taller than 
their guns. They were mere boys of war, yet rather brave 
boys, willing to shoot or to be shot at for a few cents a day. 



BURNED BY BANDITS 



ALL aboard and I passed the time looking at my watch 
to know when we would arrive in safety at Victoria. 
sQj^s^ When I concluded we were fortunate so far, and 
^^^»^J would get through all right, the train suddenly 
slowed down. No station was near, only a lonely divide, an 
ideal spot for bandits. Immediately the doors at each end 



146 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

of the coach were locked and guards were stationed there 
with guns in hand and cartridge belts slung over their shoul- 
ders. This was a new way to euiorce the old rule, "Pas- 
sengers are requested to keep ot! the platforms." Outside the 
door the soldiers stood on the steps all ready to fire. I poked 
my head out of the window and saw a whole passenger train 
which had been wrecked and burned up two days before. 
Nothing was left of it but the skeleton. Our track had been 
cleared and we barely managed to pass. No wood was left, 
nothing but steel rods and trucks. 

It was said that Carranza had executed a rebel leader in 
the nearby town and the rebels were so incensed that they 
blew up, robbed and burned the first train that came through, 
to show Mr, Carranza how they hated him. "What a foolish, 
fiendish way to get even by making so manj' suffer. This is 
the Mexican method, however, with much madness in it. Had 
it been two days earlier I might have given the reader a more 
graphic description of this trip, if I had lived to tell the tale. 



BETWEEN STATIONS 



WE saw the sun set at Victoria, and the crowd 
at the depot seemed surprised we were only five 
hours late. Since the bandits had not held us up 
they proceeded to hold us up for the food we ate. 
Indian children hung around, watched us eat and fought like 
dogs for the few scraps thrown from the windows. 

Victoria is 80 miles west of the Gulf coast and situated 
in a very fertile valley. Raising cane and refining it are the 
leading industries. It requires nine hours to go eighty miles, 
because the natives raise Cain as well as sugar and cattle. The 
picturesque mountains afforded ideal hiding places for thieves 
and murderers. Our coach was illuminated with one lantern. 
We grew chilly with fear and mountain air and pulled our 
coats over us. At 1 a. m. the train stopped and people pressed 
in, forcing us to keep ourselves from being sat on. 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 147 

At Lenares we were able to buy hot coffee and chocolate, 
a pleasant diversion. Recently I read that at Port Rillas, a 
town near here on the Monterey and Gulf railway, the bandits 
looted the place and publicly hung the mayor in the plaza. 
Soon after we crossed the boundary line of Tamaulipas into 
the state of Nuevo Leon, reaching Monterey at 3 :30 a. m. 

We lifted our frozen, cramped legs into a hack and were 
driven to the Hotel Iturbide. It was not far away but seemed 
several miles. Were an invading army to make as much noise 
as we did, it would be discovered, and the people aroused and 
the invaders driven out. We knocked at the big heavy door 
and an Indian finally came and took us and our bags to the 
top floor. Out of breath and tired to death, v^^e glanced out 
of the window on mountains glorious in the moonlight, then 
were soon asleep and resting, till jocund day stood tip-toe on 
their misty mountain tops. To keep warm it v^^as necessary 
to spread our coats and baggage on the bed. With this extra 
exertion we had an excellent rest from 4 to 6 a. m. "L's" 
alarm watch aroused us then, for time was brief and there was 
much to see. . After an unusually good breakfast of eggs, 
wheat cakes, pan dulee and coffee, we were ready to see 
some of the things we had read about. 

Sincerely thankful for our spared lives, we went to the 
cathedral and worshiped alone. The unusual thing there was 
the Mexican flag on the altar. We threaded the little streets, 
crossed several plazas and admired the big beginnings of a 
hotel, noAv suspended on account of the revolution. In many 
stores the Kaiser had his picture on photos and postcards. 



KAISERISTAS IN MEXICO 



MEXICO is unfriendly to the United States. She would 
be glad to unite with a Latin-American country or 
any other to fight against us. If our boys go to the 
front they will find an enemy at the back door. It is 
an open secret that rival bandits would pose as patriots, and 
join with other warring factions and our disaffected German 
friends in ]\Iexico to embarrass and attack the United States. 



148 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

Hundreds of German merchants in Mexico have for some 
strange reason laid in stock enough to last for years to come. 
About the only foreigners I traveled with on ship and train 
were Germans. Their private plotting club meetings are well 
attended in Vera Cruz, Tampico, Monterey, Mexico City, 
Puebla and Orizaba. As a rule they will not employ an 
American in their stores, plantations, or haciendas. To the 
bands of Carranzistas, Villistas and Zapatistas has been 
added another class, the Kaiseristas, who train their tropical 
drooping mustachios into upright saber points. 

In many cities the American and German clerks are not on 
friendly terms with each other. German agents have been 
using the Mexican wireless and press for their Anti-American 
propaganda. Pro-German magazines and pamphlets abound. 

German money has financed and paid the "Boletin de 
Guerra" to stir up hate against the U. S. It is rumored 
that German reservists near Monterey and Tampico have 
factory and machinery to run a poison plant. They 
take the Mexican weed "laccita," grind it into a liquor 
and mix it with some oily substance that not only produces 
a lubricating oil but gives off a deadly gas fume. 

I was frequently addressed in German, either because I 
looked like one, or it wasn't thought an American would be 
fool enough to be down there. 

Germans boasted they neither respected nor feared our 
"dollar diplomacy," and that "one German could lick ten 
Americans anywhere at any time." German agents are trying 
to buy automobile motors for aeroplane use, and one big auto- 
mobile owner told me they had come to him and asked for 
estimates on his cars. 

I was in Vera Cruz harbor the day of the publication of 
the Zimmerraann note. An officious Immigration official re- 
fused Americans on board permission to go on shore. He 
gave no reason to them, to the captain or to the Ward Line 
agent for his unusual action. This was the first time anything 
like this had ever happened. 

These are facts — draw your own conclusion, and your 
sword for God, home and native land. 




THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 149 

A SILVER SMELTER 

N THE W^^ to visit the big smelter we struck 
another piece of good luck, an American seeking a 
position as engineer there. He was glad to guide us 
to the office where we were kindly offered the neces- 
sary pass. There had been no real work here for three 
years, as the revolution had killed all the industry. The wars 
of revolution have interf erred with Monterey's machinery 
wheels in her mills of lumber, wool, flour and steel, and 
foundries of brass and iron. It was an immense plant and its 
branches spread over many acres. In one place there was a 
blast furnace and the workers were making railroad bolts and 
spikes. The large T rail plant and others were silent and 
shut down. 

A two-mile walk brought us to the big American silver 
smelter. As we trudged around the high guarding wall we 
met a picturesque boy carrying a bundle of brush. I wanted 
his picture but as soon as he saw me approaching with the 
kodak he ran as if he were to be shot against the wall. I 
never saw such terror in a human face. He thought the 
kodak was a gun, but the piece of money I held out diverted 
him just long enough for me to snap him. 

The plant is run by an American, a gray-haired, jolly fel- 
low who showed us everything from the ore brought in the 
cars to the crushing, roasting, melting and final bar mold for 
export. It was all interesting and he was more interesting 
than all. He described not only the process but told of the 
people who worked for him. Among them were some sons 
of the good church "fathers" whom the government had 
recently sent home. Our American friend said we needn't 
be shocked at this, that the "fathers" had many accom- 
plishments, among them the art of gambling. There was a 
club where the "father" could beat any professional gambler. 
He was always present, sat in the game and generally got 
up and walked away with the stakes. We selected several 
mineral souvenirs of near gold and silver and left feeling we 
had been richly repaid for this visit. It was interesting to 
know that Huerta once worked here. Perhaps this is where 
he cultivated a like for precious metals. 



150 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

MONTEREY LANDMARKS 



M^ ONTEREY is beautifully situated, has a well built 
college, hospital, government buildings, plazas and 
statues. It was founded in 1599 and has been one of 
the most prospering manufacturing cities in Mexico. 
There are iron foundries, cotton factories, smelters and its 
leading industry is mining silver. 

Under General Taylor, in the Mexican war, the city was 
besieged and captured by American forces September 24, 1846. 
"Monterey" is from El Monte Key, the king's mountain, and 
is enthroned on a fertile plain surrounded by hills. "La 
Silla," or Saddle Mountain, is back of the town and offers a 
saddle where the storm-king may ride. It is very artistic and 
shows to good advantage as a label on a beer bottle. "La 
Mitra" mountain, the mitre, is the only one now seen in Mexico 
since the hierarchy has fallen below the horizon. 

The so-called "Bishop's Palace" is the most noted and 
interesting thing. Taking a car we passed a big church school 
of girls, entered a native house whose occupants were making 
clay pots and jars, climbed a hill and finally stood amid the 
ruins of the old historic building. We were met by a guard 
and his revolver. The Spanish professor who accompanied us 
fixed everything, and we harmless tourists were permitted to 
look around since we were not present to spy on any one or 
injure the nearby wireless. It is a picturesque ruin on the 
most prominent hill overlooking the city which it com- 
mands and controls when occupied by soldiers. Villa's and 
Carranza's soldiers have used it as barracks. The church 
walls within were covered with crude, charcoal sketches as 
obscene as an idle Mexican soldier's imagination could make 
them. There were ribald rhymes, lewd lines and filthy poems 
that the professor kindly translated. There were also satir- 
ical caricatures of Carranza, Villa and some Mexican generals. 
The walls were bullet-riddled and the church had often been 
a charnel house. One would think that the sublime view out- 
side, of mountains, plain, city and buildings would have 
inspired better verses and art than were pictured on its 
walls. But a Mexican can't get away from himself. If by 
mistake he ever reached heaven, he would look for a crowbar 




SOLDIER-GUARDED TRAIN ESPERANZA, MEXICO 




TOWN DESTROYED BY BANDITS— NEAR CORDOVA, 
MEXICO 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 151 

to loot the golden streets of the New Jerusalem; pull Peter's 
beard; play "Paloma" on the first harp he could grab; and 
flirt with every pretty angel that passed by. 

This ''Palace" is an old and historic pile. Monterey is the 
key of the north and this hill is the key to the city. Our 
army came here in 1846. The Mexican General Ampudia had 
ten thousand men, and although Zach Taylor had less than 
seven thousand, he came, saw and conquered the Mexican. 
*'Zaeh" was attacked from cellar, wall and home roof, but 
pushed on through plaza and up towards hill until this Gi- 
braltar of the Bishop was captured, as was General Ampudia 
and his forces. All this happened after a ten day's siege, 
three of hard fighting, and a loss of some hundred men. 

Zachary Taylor was familiarly known and called "Old 
Rough and Eeady, " a fitting title in accord with his life on 
the plantation, when fighting the Seminole Indians, or the 
Mexicans at Palo Alto, Vera Cruz or Buena Vista. The Whigs 
nominated him for the U. S. presidency and he was elected, 
although the genial old scout only lived sixteen months after 
his inauguration. 

Monterey has always been a strategic city. Soldiers have 
camped and tramped all over it. Topo Chico is the name 
of two hot springs just outside the city. One has hot -water 
to scald you, and the other has a tepid solution of arsenic 
to murder you in cold blood. This is proper and may be 
needed for health, but what Monterey most needs is some 
springs on her hacks. 

The homes are embowered in flowers, fragrant and beau- 
tiful. Were I a bee or a botanist I would make a beeline and 
come here. The silver smelter is one thing, but the flowers 
smelt here were worth more to me and cheaper than silver. 
They proved a fond memory when we rode on the train 
among the nasty natives. 

Our train from Laredo to Monterey was two hours late, a 
train that was to give me recollections that 200' years can 
never efface. The depot waiting-room was foul and fetid. Beg- 
gars came in endless procession, one-eyed, one-legged, one- 
armed, walking hospitals, and all imploring God to melt our 
hearts and let them run into their hands in centavo form. 
Children, women and men paraded by and I gave to each and 




152 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

all until I couldn't afford to give them any more. This army 

of beggars v^ith their eternal "un centavo senor," makes you 
feel so profane that you vv^ish you had a graphophone record 
to grind out some suitably fitting reply. 



HATS 

HILE waiting I made a study of the varieties of 
sombreros that passed in review. A Mexican is 
known by the hat he wears. Here the hat is the 
thing, not a woman's Easter hat, but a man's every- 
day hat. The straw hat season in Mexico lasts twelve months 
and is always fashionable. A Mexican will get $42 for three 
months' work, spend $35 for a hat and then go home and give 
his wife $7 for the family. 

The hat is a common thing and word with us. How often 
at church and charity meetings we have heard the phrase, 
"Pass the hat." Many hat bands are noisy and loud and 
play in bad taste. Perhaps the angel halo has come down to 
man in the form of a hat and crown. 

I recall my first cap of wool and fur, then my straw, derby 
and slouch. I can't forget the time when a cousin came from 
London wearing an ugly derby and my mother gave him my 
hat, compelling me to wear his. As it was winter time every 
schoolmate made it a target for snowballs, often missing it and 
pasting me in the ear. Then there was my first silk hat on 
which a telegraph wire fell, cutting it in half but sparing my 
bald crown. Abroad I have worn Oriental hats of straw and 
cork, to say nothing of those in hotel racks which have been 
exchanged for mine. 

Fielding, in his "Jonathan "Wild," has a classic chapter on 
hats. He speaks of several gangs who wanted to idly live 
without labor. They wore different styles of hats, the Tories 
fiercely cocked hats and others the nab or trencher hat with 
the brim that flapped over their eyes. The former were 
called "cavaliers" and the latter "wags." They were quar- 
relsome, felt nothing in common between them, while in fact 
they were as similar as a bushel of beans or potatoes. "In 
truth the difference lay only in the fashion of their hats.'* 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 153 

Jonathan Wild called them all to the ale house after 
Fierce 's execution and gently but forcibly said: ''Gentle- 
men, I am ashamed to see men embarked in so great and 
glo^rious an undertaking as that of robbing the public, so 
foolishly and weakly dissenting among themselves. Do you 
think the first inventors of hats, or at least of the distinctions 
between them, really conceived that one form of hat should 
inspire a man with divinity, another with law, another with 
learning or another with bravery? No, they meant no more 
by these outward signs than to impose on the vulgar, and 
instead of putting great men to the trouble of acquiring or 
maintaining the substance, to make it sufficient that they eon- 
descend to wear the type or shadow of it. When you know 
you are all prigs, what difference can a broad or narrow brim 
create? Is a prig less a prig in one hat than in another? 
What can be more ridiculous than for gentlemen to quarrel 
about hats when there is not one among you whose hat is 
worth a farthing? What's the use of a hat farther than to 
keep the head warm or to hide a bald crown from the 
public?" 

The Mexican's hat has a brim like a bushel basket, a top 
like a volcano cone and enough straw in it to make a floor 
mat. He seldom changes his hat and it is always a habitat 
for dust and vermin. Some sombreros are not sombre but 
very gay with decoration and silver embroidery. 

The stores have large varieties in style and price and some 
of the street sellers carry a stack of hats on their heads until 
they are walking hat stores. The lower class in Mexico are 
only fastidious about their hats, and many unfastidious 
thoughts are hatched beneath them. They are used for sun 
umbrellas, pillows, for style and often a "fence" for stolen goods. 
Our cowboys sport leather breeches and "chaps." The Mexi- 
cans on foot or horseback love their sombreros, and will spend 
fifty dollars and more for them. A Mexican will spend all 
for his hat on his head and little for the brain that is under 
it. He prefers a good hat to a poor home and often pays 
half as much for the former as the latter. The hat 's the thing 
and together with his rainbow colored serape catches the heart 
of the ladies. 



154 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

The only difference between the high and low class Mexi- 
can is the hat. There is the same low, ignorant, scheming, 
unoriginal, orthodox and lazy brain beneath. The only dif- 
ference, often, between the statesman and the peon, is the 
hat. The peon, next to pulque, loves his hat that is shaped 
like a dunce hat and runs to a peak. The volcano style is 
fit for these hot-headed people. Some of the hats are so big 
that they crush out all the brains of the wearer. Their mental 
light is hid under a bushel. The Mexican loves his hat as a 
Fijian does his high bushy pompadour. "Without his hat he 
is like a baldheaded woman without her crowning glory. The 
slang is appropriate here, "Where did you get that hat?" 

The milestones of history are but hats. Coming down the 
centuries we pass the old Phrygian bonnet, ancestor of the 
"old gray bonnet"; the petasus of the Greek with its wide 
brim; the cardinal's hat of Pope Innocent IV; Chaucer's 
Flanders beaver; the peaked, brigand style of the War of the 
Roses; the significant low crown and feather of Henry VIII; 
the stiff and dark hat of the Reformation ; the hig jinks head- 
gear of Queen Elizabeth; the tall crown and stiff brim of the 
formal and high-browed Puritan; the high silk hat brought 
from Florence to France and England for Sunday church- 
goers; the Quaker hat big enough to feed a horse with a 
bushel of oats; and all the other family of hats, soft or stiff, 
felt or silk, worn in December or May. 



A DIRTY DEPOT 

EXICAN boys shined shoes for five cents. We deter- 
mined to be generous and gave ten cents for ours, 
whereupon the boy resented it and demanded more. 
I made a gesture with my hand which he feared 
might be followed by one of my newly shined shoes, and he 
disappeared. The newsies, too, had an eye for business, 
attempting to charge us four times the regular amount for 
papers we couldn't read. Apple skins and orange rinds, that 
had been thrown on the foul floor and trampled on, were 
eagerly picked up and greedily devoured by the half-famished 




THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 155 

poor. The only way to escape was to go outside and leave 
"L" to sit on and guard our bags, I noticed a group sitting 
on the platform listening to a musical trio. The woman was 
singing a smutty &tory and some love songs, while two men 
played her accompaniment. The natives cheered and ap- 
peared to be highly entertained. 

The waiting room is used as a dormitory for the soldiers. 
They lie there in their uniforms, for they must stay to guard 
and meet all trains. At night they wrap up in a blanket and 
sleep on the floors. At 6 p. m. they were sitting and lying 
against the wall like so many bags of flour. An officer unex- 
pectedly entered and the men stood up except one soldier, 
who lay snoring by the door. The officer began at once to 
kick him around the room like a rug. Before he could get 
up he kicked him down again. 

We were dead tired and learned that this line was the only 
one that ran a sleeper, and only one at that. I inquired 
about a section, but was unable to get it from the railroad 
agent, who referred me to the hotel runner. In broken Eng- 
lish the latter informed me I might have a section one night 
for twenty dollars gold. That amount, he said, would include 
tips. He made me tired but not enough to fall for that. 



CATTLE CARS 



HEN the train arrived there was a wild scramble to 
get on in spite of a broken pipe near the platform 
steps that squirted and soaked everyone. Our tickets 
were first-class, but the first-class coach was full to 
overflowing, to platforms and steps. To get on at all we 
dragged ourselves into a second-class coach, dimly lighted and 
jammed with wiggling, squirming humanity. I succeeded in 
securing standing room by the lavatory door. This sanitary 
institution seemed wholly unknown and unnecessary to many 
of the Indian passengers on the car, who made the whole 
coach a public comfort station. I was sitting on my valise 
by two drunken natives, waiting and wondering what might 
happen before morning, when I espied an American in my 



156 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

same, sad plight of being a first-class passenger in a second- 
class coach. I haled him and his "Hello" was like a voice 
from heaven. His name was McCord, and to my dying day 
I'll think and say, "Blessed be the tie," cord or McCord that 
bound me to him. He was going to Mexico City, had often 
made the trip and knew how to adapt himself. 

The car pulled out. As in Peru, the natives were afraid of 
the night air and refused to open the windows. Angels and 
ministers of grace defend us ! Soon our coach had the odor 
of Limburger cheese, and it required little imagination in the 
dark to believe the Indians were crawling maggots. As a 
clergyman I have attended funeral services in charnel-houses, 
but no corpse ever exhaled the perfume of this living carrion. 
It would have been a great relief then if some stray bandit 
had shot holes in the window panes for ventilation. Drunken 
greasers, heavy snorers, guttural talk, squalling babies, the 
smell of dirty clothes and filthy food, aisles piled high with 
mountainous bundles, all led to the one hoped-for conclusion 
that weeping might endure for the night, but joy would come 
with the morning when we reached Saltillo and the passengers 
who left there would leave room for us. 

Our plan was one of Burns' "best laid schemes" that 
slipped a cog, and gave us a rude jolt. The train hadn't been 
under way an hour before it stopped in the midst of moonlit, 
lonesome mountain scenery. I was glad to get an excuse to 
get out of the car to see what was the matter. There was a 
freight train just ahead, and after an hour's wait I went ahead 
to investigate. The poor, over-worked, uncared-for engine 
had broken down and the engineer was trying to patch it up. 
But the most startling discovery was that there was another 
first-class coach attached to our train. I found out why it had 
not been opened to relieve the congestion and accommodate the 
first-class passengers who had been forced into a second-class 
coach. There was a Carranza officer in it with his harem. Was 
it his private car? Had he chartered it? No. Like the soldiers 
he was riding on a deadhead pass, only he had the whole 
coach to himself and was locked in, that none might enter to 
tell him and his lady friends to get up and get out. Another 
shining illustration of Mexican morals. 




THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 157 

The freight train finally started, went up the grade a 
short distance and stuck again. Meanwhile another train had 
caught up with us. What to do was soon decided. We began 
to push the freight train ahead of us and the train behind 
shoved us. It was literal uphill work and difficult for the 
engines to work together. As a result, instead of reaching 
Saltillo that night, we arrived next morning after sunup. 



SALTILLO 

I HE word ''Saltillo" means "Get out, Uncle." On 
this hint I hustled to the first-class coach and man- 
aged to seize a seat before the others could get on. 
This confounded place, Saltillo, was founded in 1575. 
We covered the 37 miles from Monterey to Saltillo in ten 
hours, very good time for this tropic schedule. 

Saltillo is the capital of the state of Coahuila, is over five 
thousand feet above sea level, lies on the slope of a hill, and it 
was only seven miles from here that the famous battle of 
Buena Vista was fought. It is the centre for the circumfer- 
ence of state trade and is known for the manufacture of flour, 
cotton blankets, and woolen scrapes. They try to pull the wool 
over the eyes of the tourist in the price they charge for their 
wool blankets or scrapes. They are world-famed for wear 
and color. In addition there is the "robozo," the long narrow 
shawl the women wear over their heads with a flirtatious 
adjustment to attract the boys. There is an interesting his- 
torical museum dedicated to Hidalgo, the pious, patriot priest 
dauntless till death. Hidalgo was killed by the clergy and his 
head was exhibited in the castle of Granditas Guanajuato. 
The city boasts a Madero institute, college, cathedral and 
Athenaeum. At one time it was the capital of Texas, then an 
unwilling part of the Mexican federation. The state of 
Coahuila means ** happy land" according to some, but no one 
except a Hooligan or Mark Tapley could possibly enjoy these 
surroundings of the dry desert and dreary, bandit-haunted 
land we passed through. 



158 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

DESERT STATIONS 



BUENA VISTA is seven miles from Saltillo and the 
place of battle where General Zachary Taylor, with 
five thousand Americans, whipped Santa Anna with 
his force of twenty thousand, "Zaeh" losing but 700 
and Santa Anna 2,000. This happened in IS^T. Angostura 
was a narrow and bitter pass to Santa Anna. Buena Vista 
was a good point from which to view and review all this, and 
Agua Nueva in the lovely "Enchanted Valley," "La Encan- 
tanda," where our American force was encamped. The mem- 
ory of the manner in which the Mexicans were thrashed here 
did much to compensate for the discomfort of the -previous 
night. 

"We slipped by Carneros, a danger point, where later, on 
May 6, 1917, bandits blew up a train, killing 30 soldiers and 
injuring 40 others. 

At noon we reached Vanegas after a morning's ride 
through a country dry as a prohibition speech, dusty as a 
miller's overalls and deserted as a poker parlor during a 
police raid. The desert was made dismal by clumps of cactus 
bushes that lay in wait to stick you for all you are worth, 

Vanegas is a town of vinegar aspect. Its houses are heaps 
of flat stones, with low doors difficult to enter, and corru- 
gated tin roofs. It has a population of outlaw-looking 
paupers. In this desert station we were surrounded by bunches 
of animated rags running around, bony beggars and venders 
who had rosaries of sausages around their necks. They live 
by selling eggs and tortillas to the train passengers, and on 
the plunder taken from passengers and trains robbed there. 
The bandits who overrun the country make this town one of 
their headquarters and are fed and housed by the inhabitants. 
After I left Mexico I received a letter from McCord dated 
"Monterey, April 10th," in which he stated that he was 
waiting for a train that had been held up and shot at Vanegas, 
the place where we had all eaten dinner. 

We were not sorry to leave this desert town of dirty 
women, drunken men and diseased children, A little further 
along the line we kept sharp watch to see the monument that 
marks the Tropic of Cancer, "Tropic de Cancer Zona Torrida." 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 159 

We passed it and knew it told the truth, for it was very- 
hot. That there may be cancer here I had no doubt, for 
there was every other kind of disease. On the monument 
there were little hands, like finger signs, pointing in opposite 
directions from the ridge of the small structure and doubtless 
pointing to some warm surroundings. The monument was 
coffin-shaped and I translated the inscription to mean that 
Senorita Zona Torrida had died of a cancer. 



HANGED I 



OUT of the window we saw something dangling from a 
telegraph pole. It couldn't be a scarecrow, for there 

were no fields of corn and no crows in this desert. 

It was a dead man dancing on the air. I shot him 
with the kodak though he was already dead. We were face 
to face and only fifteen feet apart. He wore a pair of pants, 
coat and shoes. His sombrero had fallen off and was lying 
on the ground five feet beneath him. His head was jerked to 
one side as if his necktie didn't fit and choked him. This was 
shocking, and turning to MeCord I said, "What's this?" 
"Oh, just a bandit — you will see a lot more before you reach 
Mexico City," he replied. The soldiers in the car laughed 
at my surprise, and that I had taken a picture of what was 
to them a common thing, a part of the still life features of the 
scenery. 

There is a reason for this posting on the road. When the 
bandits attack the soldiers on the train and are defeated, they 
are converted into an improvised target or hung up with 
placarded warnings to other bandits. A few days before 
fifteen fellows had been strung up on a clump of cacti near by. 
A little further on we saw another bandit in a heap at the 
foot of a telegraph pole. The rope had broken but he was 
dead and looked "like a soldier taking his rest," with his 
serape around him. 

Cactus and other scrubby bush grow all around, but there 
is another bush far more deadly and dangerous, the ambush 
from blood-thirsty assassins. The soldiers told McCord it was 



160 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

quite, lively here two weeks before when the outlaws were 
shooting up trains every day, but things were dead now. 
Decidedly dead quiet, 1 thought, when I looked out of my 
window and saw another bandit strung up to another tele- 
graph pole. 

The station Charcas may have received its name from the 
carcass of a bandit swinging on a pole near the station. Buz- 
zards had banqueted on it and the legs were half eaten 
off. What an elevating spectacle it is to see these bandit 
bodies, mutilated, festering and denuded, blackened by sun 
and dirt, with legs and arms eaten off by vultures, swinging 
from the telegraph poles, not only along the route but at all 
the leading stations from ^Monterey to Queretaro. 

Trains generally enter rough and forbidding parts of a 
town, but this was the most uninviting route I had ever 
taken. Please remember this was not France in the Middle 
Ages, but Mexico in the Twentieth Century. Planging is a 
final argument, for a dead man's lips make no reply. There 
is no court trial or jail sentence with possible pardon as with 
us. "When they get their man he is shot down or hung up 
with no waste of words or weeks. This is done for an object 
lesson. It is awful but that lesson is not learned and the out- 
laws only become madder. 

Of course these hanging bodies relieve the dreary monotony 
of the desert scenery. These villains reminded me of Villon's 
ballad which he wrote, expecting to be hanged : 

"Here we are five or six strung up, you see. 
And here the flesh that all too well we fed, 
Bit by bit eaten and rotten, rent and shred, 
And we the bones grow dust and ash withal; 

For us, nor let Hell's thunder on us fall; 

We are dead, lot no man harry or vex us dead, 

But pray to God that he forgive us all. 

The rain has washed and laundered us all five, 
And the sun dried and blackened ; yea. perdie, 
Ravens and pies with beaks that rend and rive 
Have dug our eyes out, and plucked oil' for fee 




THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 161 

Our beards and eyebrows ; never are vi^e free 
Not once to rest ; but here and there still speed, 
Drive at its wild will by the wind's change led, 
More pecked of birds than fruits on garden wall; 
Men, for God's love, let no gibe here be said, 
But pray to God that he forgive us all." 



HELLISH ATROCITIES 

N MEXICO the bandits' life is one continual round 
of ammunition — which they get from United States. 
Outlaws ravage the country, rob towns, tear up 
tracks, dynamite trains, insult women, plunder the 
passengers, burn up stations, bridges, passenger and freight 
trains, and throw the bodies of the wounded into the fire. 
They not only maraud and murder but mutilate and commit 
the most fiendish crimes imaginable on men and women. 

"Atrocity" is too angelic and tame a word to describe 
the diabolic acts of bandits and soldiers. I talked with and 
photographed girls who had been dishonored by Zapatista 
bandits. Their stories sounded like pages from the Devil's 
Diary. Every few days trains are held up by bandits, and not 
only are children kidnapped and men robbed, but women are 
stripped of their clothing, taken out of the train and ravished 
in sight of the passengers by bandit soldiers. 

A man who had just escaped with the clothes on his back 
told me that on his train a little five-year-old girl was being 
outraged by a Mexican brute, and when her father tried to 
rescue her the ruffian picked her up by the feet and beat her 
brains out against the iron railing on the platform. 

Recently a pack of these hell-hounds came to a planter's 
house and asked the owner for $500. "When he told them 
he did not have it, he was tied and tortured. The brutes then 
outraged his daughter before his eyes until she was dead, 
after which they killed him and subjected him and her to a 
hellish mutilation and indignity so unthinkable and unutter- 



162 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

able that even Hell must have been put in a shame-faced 
mood. Such crimes are common all over Mexico, 

The bandit is not satisfied to murder a man, but loves to 
torture and mutilate him before he is dead; to slice off the 
soles of his feet and compel him to walk on cactus, or cut 
off his ears, hands, nose and other parts of his body. They 
burn, shoot, hang and commit fiendish atrocities that are un- 
printable. For happy diversion they tie men up by their 
fingers and slit their bodies open. Before the face of her 
father they have sliced off a daughter's breasts and rubbed 
them like a sponge over his face. They strip a man and hang 
him to a tree by the tenderest part of his body. They rode 
on horseback into a hospital over the wounded on the floor 
and those who were not trampled on Avere taken out and 
shot. At Torreon, because the Chinamen objected to having 
their houses robbed, the bandits tied them to horses and tore 
them limb from limb. One prefers to be blown up by dyna- 
mite in his train than to fall in the hands of these fiends who 
may torture him before he is killed. They are like boys who 
catch a fly or beetle and tear off his legs. Their murderous 
spirit was conceived and brought forth in iniquity and is 
in harmony with the memory of the Christ-like Cortez and 
the holy and most tender Inquisition, 

They are sons of Belial, "than whom a spirit more lewd 
fell not from heaven, or more gross to love Vice for itself." 
Like the rape of the Sabines, bandits come to a town, burn, 
steal and carry off all the women. A girl is doomed who 
attracts the fancy of an officer, and her brother, father, hus- 
band or lover is shot who objects and seeks to protect or 
hide her. It is a fact that a father hid his daughter in a 
haystack away from the soldiers who had raped every woman 
they could lay their hands on, A young girl told me that on 
returning from early mass she saw citizens being shot and 
tortured, and when two bandits saw her they gave chase. 
She escaped by running into a house. They set it on fire, 
yet she managed to get away. 

^lexican soldiers are cowardly, come late on the scene of 
action and are slow to follow the bandits in the hills. Men 
become bandits for revenue only. Why should they work 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 163 

for fifty cents a day when one can steal a horse and machete 
and join a gang of bandits, loot a hacienda or village, get 
food, liquor, the daughter or wife of a native, and clothes, 
saddle, rifle and ammunition? The profession of banditry is 
comparatively safe, few bandits are killed, and pay is big. 
So small is the number of troops, and the garrisons so poorly 
paid and underfed, that many of the soldiers would rather join 
the bandits than kill them. 

Like the bullet-riddled bandits we saw hung up along the 
road, truth, honor, justice and virtue have been killed and 
crucified in Mexico. 



"MUCHO DISGUSTO" 

WAS an amusing relief to have the train boy try and 
sell us a time-table of the road that never is on time, 
and that runs from two to five days late regularly, 
and during revolutionary times at intervals of six 
months. This time-table was the best satire that could be 
written on the road. It deserves a place among Disraeli's 
* ' Curiosities of Literature, ' ' and is a fine piece of irony on these 
iron rails. It was the only table we saw on the road. There 
is no diner and no station restaurant. When the train stops, 
the natives come up to sell food. We dared not walk out, for 
the etiquette of the Mexican train is that when you. leave 
your seat someone else takes it and your baggage, too, if he 
can get it. 

Nearly famished, we welcomed any kind of food at any 
price, whether it made peace or war with our stomach. Beg- 
gars must not be choosers, yet the vegetables and meat these 
beggars offered us beggars description. Charles Lamb would 
never have offered grace before this feast. I fear his words 
would have been a stammering oath. The only prayer I 
offered was that I might live through the meal and long 
enough afterwards to get ready to die. Natives sold us tor- 
tillas that looked as if they had used them as a piece of 
mattress to sleep on. They had poured over them a thick bean- 




164 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

mush or meat gravy in which floated peppers large and small. 
It was a noisome, nauseating mess, a companion dish to the 
witch 's cauldron or to a Paris sewer. 



SAN LUIS POTOSI 



OUR TICKETS were good as far as San Luis Potosi, 
where we had expected to stop over, but the train 
was losing so much time we feared we would not 
reach Mexico City before Christmas. It had made 
so many stops we decided to omit this one. Before reaching 
the station we saw the now common sight of some more sus- 
pended bandits. 

At the depot I stepped out with McCord to get my ticket 
for Mexico City. While the agent was waiting on a soldier, 
who was strongly persuading the ticket-agent to make his pass 
for one good for four, I saw two men attempt to pick Mac's 
pockets, and warned him to beware. He stepped away and 
said, "That's right, I felt their hands." 

Here we were at San Luis after taking two long sides of 
a triangle from Tampico, because the short line road was 
shot up and was a mere imaginary distance between two 
points. This town w^as founded in 1586 and in 1863 was the 
Civil War seat of the Juarez government. It stands over six 
thousand feet above sea level on the edge of the table-land. 
It is well built and has broad, right-angled streets. There is 
a fine cathedral called the church of San Pedro, a seminary, 
railroad workshops, cotton factory and large smelting works. 
It is famous for its silver mines. It has large trade in cattle, 
hides and tallow. The climate is healthful. The Alameda 
with the Hidalgo statute is an object of interest. In the cathe- 
dral there is said to be a clock older, larger and more expen- 
sive than grandfather's clock. It was sent here by the king 
of Spain in exchange for a chunk of gold found in a nearby 
mine, the biggest nugget of pure gold ever discovered in 
America. Yet judged by the ragged pack of peons who 
boarded our train, I am sure they had never once seen or 
owned a piece of silver or gold big enough to plate a spoon 
or fill a tooth. 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 165 

ROBBED 



^T^ HAT NIGHT the train was filled with music of snores 
A and cries of children, yet our tired natures fell 
asleep. Mac had warned me about having my bag 
stolen, I cautioned him to look out for his own, and 
he placed it in the aisle where all three of us could see it. 
When we reached Gonzales a score of women venders surged 
into the car. Some sneak-thief, hiding behind their skirts, 
snatched the big suitcase and silently "stole" away. As soon 
as the skirts left, Mac missed it and searched the car for it 
with my flashlight. No use. When the train started he said 
he would stay over and try and find it, for it contained 
valuable memoranda and plans, besides a kodak, surveyor's 
instruments, clothing and personal effects valued at several 
hundreds of dollars. 



ON THE ANXIOUS SEAT 



THE train left the station and Mac, and we felt sadly 
left. While "L" and I were talking it over, a small, 
sallow, over-grown boy came into the car. Over- 
hearing us, he came up and spoke English. It 
sounded good but he had bad news. He was a telegraph oper- 
ator and had jumped on the train a few stations before to 
save his life. A despatcher's life is not an easy one here, and 
it is no picnic to be left alone expecting to be strung up. 
The first thing the bandits do is to cut the wires and hang the 
operator, after which they proceed to burn the station and 
town. AH that afternoon we had passed depots with black- 
ened walls and roofless ruins. Every other station resembled 
an earthquake and volcano district. This boy was at his 
desk, conscious the bandits were after him, when a naked In- 
dian whom he had befriended rushed in from the hills, telling 
him to get up and out, for the bandits were coming that night 
to shoot him and hold up our train between Gonzales and 
Queretaro. Three times this week our train had been shot at 
between these cities. It was not a pleasant thought that we 
were sitting at the window as possible targets, or that if we 
lay down on the car floor we might be blown up by dynamite. 



166 THE DEVTf. IN' MEXICO 

Our "Night Thoughts" would have made the poet Young 
grow old. It was no joke. The officere and soldiers in the 
car took off their uniforms and hats, hid them under the seats 
and masqueraded in black hats and suits as passengers. If 
the bandits ever find an ofiicer aboard a train they shoot him 
at once. Passengers walked over each other down the 
jammed aisles to the washroom to find a place to hide their 
money and valuables. They left a little loose change in their 
pockets to give up, but hid the rest, hoping to make a safety 
deposit vault of their shoes and underwear. Men leaned 
back in their seats from the range of the window to avoid 
shots and held their guns all ready to aim and fire. I made 
memoranda of my express cheek numbers on my cuff and sat 
still, keeping up a busy lot of thinking. I applied to myself 
all the preaching advice, passages of Scripture and philosophy 
of death I was accustomed to give others. 

Though I could see our soldier guard train in the moon- 
light a quarter of a mile ahead of us. there was little satis- 
faction, for the operator told me the bandits often permitted 
the guard train to pass in safety so they might blow up the 
passenger train that followed. He encouraged me with the 
advice that if I was shot and blood streamed down my face, I 
was to lie down and pretend to be dead. Then the train 
stopped, we were in the desert, there was no station and no 
apparent reason and our breathing and hearts seemed to stop, 
too. The train started and we breathed again. At times we 
could see by the moonlight other railroad tracks, parallel with 
ours, that hung like ropes over the blown-up bridges and cul- 
verts. But the bandits never touched us. We were hours 
late, perhaps they grew tired of wating for our train. 



QUERETARO AND THE CONSTITUTION 



REACHED Queretaro about 4 a, m., where our soldier 
train left us, for the road from here to Mexico CMty 
was safe. Queretaro was the then present capital of 
?iIexieo. As usual a group of bandits was hanging 
up outside the station. The city was like an armed camp 
and the soldiers were walking around. Why? Because Mr. 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 167 

Carranza was here. This was his headquarters. He had not 
yet moved his capital to Mexico City. He wanted quiet and 
was afraid to move. The city was guarded like a jail or 
prison. Here the new Constitution was written and framed. 

The Constitution of Queretaro is the latest and newest 
word. Knowing the men who wrote it, it is as if an escaped 
convict should climb in a pulpit and preach on the Ten Com- 
mandments. This Constitution, after a trip through lawless 
Mexico, seems like a satire. My translated copy of it says it 
was to be effective after May 5, 1917. It isn't in good work- 
ing order yet and we doubt whether it will ever make a 
start. To write and to follow are two different things. 
These laws will be shelved, for they don't fit the people. In 
general the Constitution is anti-foreign, anti-clerical, anti- 
capital and anti-American. In particular, it has to do with 
society, labor, business, education, religion, the army, press, 
freedom, property, debt, imprisonment, torture, slavery, cor- 
respondence, child-labor, the right of the laborer to strike, the 
care of a mother and her child, prohibition of liquor and 
gambling in labor centres, the penalty for the discharge of 
a laborer, civil marriage, land, gold, and oil laws, monopolies, 
taxes, the preference for Mexicans above all others and their 
duties in school, taxation, enlistment and military life. This 
looks good in print, but like most Latin American constitu- 
tions, is just on paper instead of in the lives of the people. 

The new Mexican Constitution declares, "It is necessary to 
be a Mexican by birth to be a minister of any religious creed 
in Mexico. Ministers of religious creeds may not, either in 
public or private meetings, or in acts of worship or religious 
propaganda, criticize the fundamental laws of the country, 
particularly authorities of the government in general; they 
will have no vote ; will not be eligible to office and may not 
assemble for political purposes." 

This legislation was aimed intentionally against the 
Spanish priesthood, which the Mexicans fear most and hate. 
I talked with various Protestant missionaries and teachers 
from the United States who said that under this ruling and 
other drastic laws they would be compelled to give up their 
work, but they hoped for a more liberal interpretation, as 
their services had been most welcome and helpful in hospital 



168 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

and school work, as well as in religious instruction. The fact 
that a man is unfortunate enough to be a Mexican does not 
necessarily qualify him to be a mental or moral leader. 

The New Constitution is fearfully and wonderfully made. 
The government's motto is "justice," but the present govern- 
ment has worked more injustice and misery on the people 
than any preceding government. 

Under the guise of freedom the revolutionists have become 
more autocratic than the leaders they dethroned. The Consti- 
tutionalists have practically abolished the Constitution. The 
motto ''justice" is a sheepskin over a wolf's heart and body. 
Madero was a God to the poor peon compared with this devil 
hypocrite Carranza. The people were supposed to have freely 
elected their representatives to this Constitutional convention 
at Queretaro, to form a new Constitution. But that august 
body was made up of army generals and leaders selected by 
worse than Diaz' dirty political methods. Army leaders are in 
power and intend to remain so. The people's candidate might 
receive one hundred times the votes but it was the official can- 
didate who received the office. That convention represents 
Carranza 's citj' influence in the larger cities and not the coun- 
try districts. Those states where Villa and Zapata were busy 
at war could elect no representatives. Therefore the Conven- 
tion was a farce and military men planned a military rule for 
all Mexico according to their military wish. 

It is a sad fact that these so-called revolutionary leaders 
have little mental and less moral ability, that they stand on 
the sand of whim and not on the rock of worth. They are 
soaked and doped with everything but probity. It has been 
suggested they need a strong injection of Puritan serum. 

Queretaro is on a high plateau, has good buildings and a 
Santa Clara church well known for some fine wood carvings. 
The Spanish captured the town from the Chichiniec Indians 
in 1531. It is a centre for manufacture. It manufactures 
pottery and iron ware, woolens and cotton. One of the oldest 
and largest cotton factories in Mexico is here, employing 2,000 
hands. It maintains a small private military force for pro- 
tection. It was built in the days of brigandage and has been 
repeatedly used as a fort in the civil wars. The country 
round about raises corn, fruit and cotton. There are nearby 




THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 169 

rich mines of iron, lead, copper, silver and valuable opals. 
The town is historic because the battle for independence was 
begun here, though at present it is conservative and bigoted. 



MARTYR BLOOD 

N 1914, and not fifty years ago, clerical fanaticism 
at Queretaro destroyed the Protestant school of Dr. 
Velasco. With the cry of "Viva el general Villa," 
*'Viva la religion," "Death to the Protestants," the 
mob broke the college doors, tore down the pulpit, smashed 
the organ and benches, piled up the library books and 
burned them in the streets, destroyed the flowers in the patio, 
broke the glass and stole bedding, clothing, linen and dishes. 

Early Protestant missionaries in Mexico were starved and 
killed, and their blood-stained Bibles placed under their 
heads for pillows. Their congregations were massacred and 
their churches set on fire. 

The "Defensa Catolica," published in 1887 in Mexico, 
declared that for the love of God one might impose, insult, 
injury property, take life, offend, wound and kill. It con- 
cluded, "such actions are virtuous and can be performed in 
the name of Catholic charity." 

The old man of the Tiber was anxious to hold the balance 
of power in the New World, to fuse the Latin nations into 
one and so Napoleon III and Pius IV sent Maximilian to 
Mexico. We know what happened. They showed a poorly 
balanced judgment, the balance spring of their watch and 
wait plans failed, and today it is Protestant U. S. A. that holds 
the power. 

Maximilian, the archduke of Austria and emperor, was 
besieged here by Juarez and shot after making a brave last 
stand. The place is called the Hill of Bells and rises near 
the city. 

One day when I was in Vienna I drove out to the little 
church of the Capuchins and crept down into the crypt where 
the sceptre of death sways over all that remains of Maxi- 
milian, that mistaken, misguided misfit. He was an exotic, 



170 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

transplanted from Austria, doomed to die. He was a martyr 
sacriliced on the foreign altar of a people whose dictum was, 
"No European dictator for us." Sic transit gloria mundi. 
]\Iaxixnilian's three years in Mexico illustrates the proverb, 
"Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown." 

As we pulled out of the city the historic aqueduct lay 
before us, coiling and crawling by our tracks like a silver 
snake in the moonlight. 



THE AMERICAN CLUB 



I 



T WAS morning when we reached the edge of the 
table-land. There below lay the beautiful green 
valley of Mexico and we were as thankful as C'ortez 
when he and his soldiers saw it. The rising sun 
shot through the mist, and the volcanoes kept ghostly sentinel 
watch. We rode through maguey fields, then by little towns, vil- 
lages and suburbs until the last stop was Mexico City. This was 
10:30 a. m. There were a few carriages lined outside the depot, 
but the drivers refused to take us because they were all "en- 
gaged." This was a new I\Iexican lie. It is necessary for 3''ou to 
have a boy get the cab for you so he may get his commission. 
Of course, I knew nothing of this and stood waiting idly for half 
an hour. The other way is to jump in, give the driver a third to 
a half more than he is entitled to, and he and his rig are yours. 
We picked up our bags and went outside the railroad yard and 
waited on the main street for auto and carriage which never 
came. At length two plainly dressed natives appeared carry- 
ing ropes, and my telegraph operator said they were "carga- 
dores." He made a bargain with them to carry our bags to 
the American Club and we started. It was a long, hard walk 
for them for the bags were heavy, and for us in this high alti- 
tude. All the while we were looking out for some conveyance, 
but none appeared. This was the first time in all my travels 
that in a city of 000,000 I was compelled to hoof it for more 
than a mile to my hotel. 

There was much of interest in the streets, parks and build- 
ings and we thought that we were making an original entrance 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 171 

into the capital of the Montezumas. MeCord was a member of 
the American Club and had given us his card of introduction, 
telling us we would find someone there who spoke English and 
would take care of us until he came. He was right, every one 
knew him, his friends were welcome and we were invited in to 
register, given a card with full privileges and assigned a fine, 
clean, airy room opening on a patio of sunshine and flowers. 
Two black and tan Mexican maids made the room inviting and 
set about to give us an "agua calientes," hot water bath. 
What a rest from the purgatory of places, positions and passen- 
gers we had been in and among for long days and nights. It 
was a relief to get our shoes off, to wash and be clean, to be 
clothed and in our right mind, and to be at last in Mexico City 
in a club where we could meet Americans, eat and drink like 
Americans, read all the recent papers and magazines, and have 
a library at our hand as well as other American home com- 
forts. Picture it and think of it, reader, a section of good old 
U. S. A. right here, and we were asked to make ourselves at 
home. It required no second invitation, and during our stay 
the club was the oasis in the Mexican desert, our refreshment, 
rest, refuge, place of recuperation and regal companionship 
with a set of fine fellows and friends. They were some of the 
most gentlemanly, genial and generous men I had met in any 
part of the world. 



A FARCICAL ELECTION 

T WAS the day before election, and although Car- 
ranza and his special representative friends were sure 
of election before any votes were cast, it was neces- 
sary to show some preelection enthusiasm. The 
plaza, streets and avenues were like a carnival of Venice. Any 
excuse will do for a Mexican to have a holiday or celebration. 
This was done to generate some election sentiment and make 
it appear like a popular election. Mexican flags fluttered 
from building tops and windows, crowds thronged the walks, 
listening to bands in the street which headed various political 




172 THE DE\TL IN MEXICO 

cliques and parties. Even the rival candidates, with their 
names on their banners, were all Carranza men. Their pictures 
were posted and plastered on walls all over town and their 
faces had the spiritual and intellectual look of a Villa and 
Zapata. Groups of tattered, dirty peons who marched in the 
Zocala looked as if they had walked out of a page of Carlyle's 
"French Revolution." They shouted, cheered, waved banners, 
zig-zagged around the plazas and up the streets. Labor organ- 
izations appeared with banner mottoes, political orators ha- 
rangued the crowds from cafe balconies above, and men and 
women autocrats, in their fine autos and carriages, rode up and 
down San Francisco streetdressedin their Sunday best, throw- 
ing confetti at each other and on the sidewalks. Political 
dodgers were flung into the air and came down covering the 
streets like drifts of snow. A wild mob of street urchins fol- 
lowed picking them up and tying them in bundles. To me 
this all appeared hollow and superficial, a galvanism of jerks 
with no natural life outburst. It was plain to see it was all 
done by the money of Carranza, that slaughter soldier and 
desperado dictator. 

Next morning was Sunday and election day — the better the 
day the worse the deed. We visited several of the election 
booths and watched the voters, judges and ballots. They had 
our system but none of our free spirit. ]\Ir. Carranza had 
furnished all the ballot copy and corrected the proof. To 
have issued another ballot, to have substituted another name 
on the ballot, not to have voted, or not to vote Carranza 's way, 
would have been an act of impiety and unpatriotism that 
would have sent the offender to the wall with a Carranza bul- 
let through his heart before next day's sun could rise. Car 
ranza was elected because there was no other man to be 
elected, because no other eandiate dared be nominated or run 
in opposition to him. There was no room for any government 
except the government of, by and for Carranza. While the 
election was quiet in Mexico City, in other cities women and 
children were ordered off the streets, and in Tampico there 
were fights and fatalities. As I stood looking on an officer 
asked me in English whether I was a press representative or 
just curious. I echoed his word "curious" and was curious 
no longer. 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 173 

CARRANZA THE CRIMINAL 



CIN Carranza stands for carnage, cupidity, craftiness 
and crookedness. Most Mexicans hate their govern- 
ment on general principles, but have a special dislike 
of the present head. They feel Huerta v^^as their 
choice of a man who knew them and could rule them, and that 
if Villa has slain his thousands Carranza, directly and indi- 
rectly, has slain his tens of thousands. 

Carranza is accused of lack of head and heart. They claim 
his "Royal Biliousness" sailed to the presidency on a sea of 
blood and by blood and boodle has been kept afloat. Soldiers 
boast they put him where he is and will put him away unless 
he lets them have their own way. 

He has already swindled the nation three times with waste 
paper money, and is now planning a change from a silver basis 
to paper again. When he does, look out for another revolution 
and the words "good night" written in blood on the back of 
every peso. Mexico is notorious for the depreciation of its 
currency and the repudiation of its debts. Official prayer is 
limited to saying, "Forgive us our debts." 

Venustiano Carranza is old and gray. No Venus in his 
look if there is in his name. He is no more brilliant than 
beautiful, but self-satisfied, wilful and far from being a fool. 

Carranza has a cactus-like disposition. He is not "sim- 
patico" or lovable, but " antipatico, " silent and sullen. He 
is as interesting in conversation as a mud wall. 

Carranza 's friends say that he is "more able and honest" 
than any man in power since Madero — well, that isn't saying 
very much. I saw a true cartoon of Carranza published in 
Mexico. The picture right side up was the usual profile, but 
turned upside down was a donkey's head. 

Carranza is a despot who can't sympathize with U. S. 
against Germany. He is accused of wearing a German silver- 
plated crown. The Germans in Mexico have maintained a rule 
or ruin policy. They have sowed dragon's teeth and had 
much to do with the overthrow of P. Diaz, the downfall of 
Madero, the insolence of Huerta and the corruption of Car- 
ranza. Germany pushed her commerce to the very borders, 
not simply or mainly for commercial reasons, but to get the 



174 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

upper hand where she could carry out some Ziminermann 
threat. 

Tlie constitutional party is divided into two factions, the 
"civil" which is opposed to any German alliance against the 
U. S., and the "military" which is strongly pro-German, 

For criticizing Carranza two papers were suppressed in 
Mexico City, "El Universal," the morning paper, and "El 
National," the evening one. They had protested against the 
misuse of authority by military men and the abuse of the civil- 
ians by the officers. 

Obligarchy and monarchy, not democracy, is Carranza 's 
ideal. He simply dictates the kind and amount of money that 
he wants and what wages, prices and taxes shall be paid. 

Carranza 's de facto government is hard up and will de- 
scend to any depths to get money. It has already swindled the 
nation three times with paper money and promises. A mer- 
chant in Vera Cruz showed me a box full of paper money that 
wasn't worth ten cents. Silver is now used, but not in suffi- 
cient quantities. Incomes are smaller than the natives need 
and Carranza cries for a foreign loan. His blockhead of 
ignorance and his inexperienced men, recently elected to 
position, don't know what to do. 

The qualifications for members of Carranza 's cabinet are 
that they shall be ignorant, inexperienced and irreligious. 

The I. W. "W.'s should make Carranza their leader, for his 
motto is "I Will Wreck." He tears down without building 
up and his plans are mostly without patriotism, sacrifice or 
any enduring qualities. 

So far the rich results of the Carranza regime have been a 
loss of life, property, money, ambition, hope, free speech and 
free press. Today there is little work and low wages because 
Americans have been forced out with no U. S. protection. 

In Mexico night has not yet given way to light. Instead 
of the dawn of freedom the present government is liberty's 
sunset. Carranza and his crowd have neither intelligence nor 
integrity to lead the people out and up. The people are cry- 
ing for a change and would catch at anything like a drowninf? 
man at a straw. Even now they are crying "Viva Villa," 
believing this bandit is better than Carranza. 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 175 

The following day the Carranza crowd boasted that the 
election was quiet and that there had been no public disorder. 
One of his lying, subsidized correspondents, George F. Weeks, 
editor of "The Mexican Review," whom I called on, tried 
very hard to impress this fact of a fair, "quiet and peaceful 
election" on my mind. "Quiet" it was, the quiet of a dungeon, 
the quiet of men to be shot if they opened their mouth to say 
anything, the quiet of a sword over their head to fall on them 
if they moved. 



A MALODOROUS MARKET 



A SUNDAY market here looks like one in La Paz, 
Bolivia, for the streets are paved with Indians and 
their truck. I have forgotten the name of this mar- 
ket we visited, but think a good one would be "The 
Unsanitary Market." The Mexican table-land is loaded down 
with every variety of fruit and vegetable Adam dug in Eden's 
garden. In addition to the big covered market and outside 
stalls there were the native sellers who sat on mats, on gutter 
curbs and sidewalks with their garden stuff, all surrounded 
by such a big crop of babies and dogs that one thought they 
were especially raised for sale. The reader may have a good 
mental picture of a Mexican market, but the picture fails to 
show the main thing — the smell. To vegetable life you must 
add the animal one of chickens, donkeys, dogs, babies, and 
natives in unwashed garments. The latter were eating grease- 
fried meats that smelled to heaven. Much of the food for 
sale in gutter and on sidewalk looked like white wing depos- 
its. The smell was a rival to the deadly asphyxiating gases in 
Europe. Here one finds a new field of industry, for if we 
could pipe this smell like Mexican oil and ship it abroad. 
Mars would soon be choked off. I marvel that the war experts 
have not already thought of this. The odor made a sewer and 
garbage heap smell like the attar of roses. 

A respectable buzzard would be ashamed to eat what the 
poor people are glad to get. Mexico has not only hundreds of 
cripples and professional beggars, but thousands of half- 
starved souls. They sleep on streets and sidewalks at night, 



176 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

huddled up with dogs and children. Their breakfast table is 
the refuse heap. At railroad stations they swarm around the 
trains. In the capital, many women formerly rich and well to 
do have had their wealth and property confiscated and are 
now houseless by night, selling their souls to death in order to 
keep their bodies alive. 

In India I saw the mongoos fight a snake, here the snakes 
in the market were trade marks of a medicine used in adver- 
tising. The man opened a box, gathered up a handful of 
snakes, wrapped them around his neck like a collar or tie, 
drew the crowd and sold his dirt-cleaner. The Indians were 
charmed and he cleaned up a lot of money. 



THE -'IMPOSING" CATHEDRAL 

SOME the cathedral is the centre and circumfer- 
ence of all interest in the capital. In and around 
this building have raged religion, riot and revolution. 
As the pyramids were built by slaves so this monu- 
ment of a past dead religion was builded by slaves of super- 
stition who "contributed" several millions and then some 
more millions to furnish and decorate it. It is on the site of a 
former Aztec pyramid of the Avar god, Huitzilopochtli. His 
name was sufficient to kill anybody who tried to pronounce 
it, and his hideous image struck stone dead or cross-eyed the 
one who looked at it. Here the Aztecs sacrificed their war 
victims. In 1530 the pagan pyramid was torn down and a 
new style of sacrifice called "Christian" was instituted that 
bled the pocketbook. 

The present cathedral was not begun till 1573 and the next 
year there was a holocaust by the Inquisition which burned 21 
Lutherans. The church was completed in 1667 at a holy cost 
of several millions. The building is of Spanish style, in the 
shape of a cross, is 426 by 200 feet, and the height from base 
to tower top is 200 feet. It is depressing outside and dismal 
within. We frequently entered, but the air was always chill 
and the church felt like a vast tomb. From the descriptions 




THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 177 

read and the pictures seen, I expected to see and feel what I 
had enjoyed in St. Peter's in Rome, the Giralda in Spain or 
the mosque of St. Isaac's in Russia, but it was far different. 
The reported fabulous wealth had been looted, the beauty- 
faded, the statues strayed or stolen, the pictures retouched or 
cut from their frames, the famous golden lamp has ''lit" out, 
the precious gold and gemmed statue of the Assumption van- 
ished, and the marble columned high altar, once a mass of 
gold and silver, robbed to enrich private and government bank 
account. The great organ was badly out of tune and the old 
wood floor uneven and rough enough to sliver the souls and 
knees of the few worshipers. The painted faces of the angels 
and saints looked down at the changed condition of affairs, 
all changed but the architecture with its two large naves, six 
altars, three aisles and twenty or so side chapels, some of 
which contain the bones or ashes of Mexico's great dead and 
insignia of their office. Surely conditions have greatly changed 
when we remember that at one time the church held two- 
thirds of Mexico's wealth in one hand and a crucifix club in 
the other. 

The Tumbago balustrade encloses the fine wood-carved 
choir and surrounds the high altar with many figures made of 
this same rare metal. Tumbago is a combination of gold, sil- 
ver and copper alloy. The weight and worth of these railings 
is immense. The one around the choir is estimated to be 26 
tons, and an offer is said to have been made and refused to 
•replace it with one of solid silver. It was made in Macao, the 
Portugese town of China, where I had seen the people make 
opium, firecrackers and other accessories. 

The arm akimbo position of these 60 or more Tumbago 
statues on the balustrades suggested they had lumbago. I am 
not inclined to doubt it, for they have remained for so many 
years in this cold, clammy, cathedral atmosphere. There were 
broad earthquake cracks in the walls of the cathedral and 
gim-crack ornaments on them. The strong rock on which one 
of the chapels was founded has been loosened and sunken by 
earthquake. 

The solid gold ornaments have been stolen and we saw but 
little in the treasure vaults. Our guide said the priests had hid- 



178 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

den them, yet the glint of gilt was above and around us. 
Great masses of stucco designs were covered over with gilt as 
if a hose had played a stream of gold upon them, or as if cov- 
ered by a gilt fungus. The artistic and religious verdict of 
this big church is "gilty." "We attended Sunday services, 
and while the speaker was preaching serenely to the faithful 
some of the "fathers" behind the rails were talking and laugh- 
ing, and many of the choir boys had gone to sleep. On this, 
as on a funeral occasion during the week, I kept my hands in 
my pockets to keep the money I had, not only from the char- 
ity demands of beggars and collection boxes which were 
planted everywhere for alms, but to avoid being robbed by 
the faithful Artful Dodgers, who deftly abstract your hand- 
kerchief and pocketbook when your attention is devoutly 
abstracted from earth to heaven. 

The Sagrario, as it is called, is an addition to the cathedral 
and a subtraction from the etl'ect of the high and broad front 
and of the two towers. The cathedral is for the rich, the 
Sagrario for the poor. The facade is as bizarre and fantastic 
as the dress and actions of the poor peons who enter into 
service. The guide pointed out a canvas by a reputed old 
master and explained several objects of interest as he had in 
the big cathedral. Let me say right here, and very plainly, 
that one of the good things I found in Mexico was my guide, 
Duran, a native Mexican who had been to the U. S., could 
think and speak in English, had been the guide of many cele- 
brated Americans and of tourist parties, and knew all the 
history of the country and City of Mexico. He was a living 
guide-book, a friendly companion, always fair in judgment 
and price. 

Inside the church door there is the usual collection of 
sacred curios for sale and on the outside you see beggars and 
desperate looking men and women. When tired they sleep on 
the stone steps of the church or rims of the dry fountains in 
the plaza. When they awake they slowly pick themselves up, 
and their three favorite pastimes are to pick people's pockets, 
pick the lice from each other's heads and pick up the rags and 
refuse from the streets. 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 179 

RUINED ZOCALA 



THE Plaza Mayor on which the cathedral and palace 
face was once a thing of beauty with its garden of 
flowers, trees, fountains, statues and shaded walks — 
a bower of delight, the beauty spot and breathing 
place of the city. The photos of the Zocala show how beautiful 
it all was. Today it is treeless and an eyesore. It is the start- 
ing place of the street cars that circle and clang around the 
squares. The fountains are waterless, the statues and pillars 
are overturned. The cherubs stand with broken arms and 
wings, the hands and legs of the Venus statue are full of 
bullet holes, electric lamp posts are scarred with shot, and 
wandering through these ruins are venders of cakes and ices. 
Beggar boys and girls, cripples, thieves and the scum of the 
city flow into this sink-hole. There are sweepers with long- 
handled brooms stirring clouds of dust about them that rise 
and cover everybody with a blanket pall. At night when the 
sun and wind have gone down, the poorest peons come here to 
promenade, though there are few lights or attractions. To 
the question why is the plaza denuded of its former tree and 
shade beauty, I found various answers. One, that the wood 
was needed for fuel, another that too much shade was un- 
healthy, and still another that the place was cleared to break 
up the hiding of revolutionary mobs so guards could get a 
clear shot at them. 



PICKPOCKETS AND THIEVES' MARKET 



ONE morning I saw many people gathered around a 
street car. A poor, old, unfortunate Indian woman 
had been ground to pieces and lay under the wheels. 
This often happens for the cars are near the curb 
and death and injury are of frequent occurrence. In three 
days, two of the cars we were on injured some of the people 
in the street. The way they are driven makes them little 
better than Juggernauts. As I knelt down to look at tli? poor 
victim, two men attempted to go through my pockets, but 



180 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

Duran eyed them and said, "Oh, no, you cannot steal from my 
friend." Another time when we were on the street he over- 
heard two men plotting to shake and jostle me as I turned the 
corner and steal my watch and chain. In movie theatres 
signs warn you to beware of pickpockets, and the pictures of 
noted crooks are thrown on the screen that the audience may 
avoid them. If you Avant to keep your watch, stickpin or 
handkerchief, you must hide them or walk with your handa 
in your pockets. Doodling and begging are the leading pro- 
fessions. In Vera Cruz my coat was cut below the pocket by 
someone after my watch. Mexico City is known to harbor the 
most highly accomplished light-finger artists in Latin America. 
You must sew up your vest and pants pockets if you wish to 
keep your W'atch and money. I even kept my mouth shut, 
not only for fear I might say or breathe something that could 
be construed into treason, but because I feared the thieves 
would take the gold crown out of my mouth. On the train a 
friendly Mexican took pity on my ignorance of the thieving 
tricks. He reached across the aisle, jerked my watch chain, 
and motioned me to put it out of sight. 

To live you must work or steal. The Mexican hates work. 
If the minister asks him to work out his salvation he immedi- 
ately objects, but he does love to steal anything on or around 
you, in your home or office. Be it a dog, auto, bike or what- 
ever you leave on the street you must watch it, or hire a boy 
to watch it and then you must watch him. Even the newsboys 
and peddlers are thieves in disguise. The majority of them 
were begotten and born thieves and commit theft not only at 
night but in broad daylight. 

I wont to the well-known Thieves' Market and saw so 
many things there that it resembled a large department store 
capable of furnishing anj'thing one could think of or ask for. 
It was merely a clearing-house for i^lunder, for anything not 
nailed down or padlocked. Even the nails, chain and lock are 
sometimes stolen. The merchants sat under their little awn- 
ings, eyed my kodaks and smiled as if I were one of their 
tribe who had come to unload, but when I took a picture of 
them and their goods, they scowled and it wasn't so amusing. 
These stands might truthfully bear signs like this: "Stolen 
the Night Before" — "Fresh Stolen Goods" — "Warranted 
Stolen "—"Nothing But Stolen Goods Sold Here." 




THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 181 

GOVERNMENT FINANCE 

HIS petty thief market is mentioned by every writer 
and traveler, but the National Palace across the street 
is a much bigger den of thieves and the First Chief 

and Thief, Mr. Carranza, lives there. Tliis is where 

officials do national and international stealing. This palace 
has always been the headquarters for dishonest despots and 
dictators where stealing is direct, or indirect, through sub- 
offices or soldiers, by confiscation of property, taxes, bribes, 
gold and oil mine concessions, banks, railroads, money-specu- 
lation and change of currency. 

Favorite Mexican mottoes are: "In Graft We Trust," "A 
Public Office Is a Private Steal," "Dishonesty Is the Best 
Policy," "Get In and Get Away With It," "Plunder the 
Peons." Tammany Hall was a Y. M. C. A., and its members 
saints compared with this palace of political plunderers. 
"Thou Shalt Steal" is the self made commandment religiously 
and rigorously obeyed, from the newsboy who picks your 
pocket to the bandit who loots the train or town and the 
president who robs the people. 

This is the way they play the bunco game in Mexico City. 
Ex-Governor Martinez's property had been held up by the 
government, which informed him that if he dug up $25,000 
his property would be returned. He raised the amount, gave 
the money and in exchange the government gave him an order 
restoring his property. Just as the old man began to feel 
good over it, the government rescinded the order and kept 
both money and property. 

The government is financed by forced loans and bank rob- 
ber looting. At Puebla recently the government forced a loan 
or 1,275,000 pesos from the Bank Oriental. Two of the largest 
banks in Mexico City have been looted and our kind-hearted 
administration is coining in the Philadelphia mint the bullion 
which Carranza stole from Mexican banks, placed there by 
American citizens for safe keeping. 

Many of Mexico's soldiers have not been paid. If there is 
no money there are no soldiers, and no soldiers mean no gov- 



182 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

emment, so the loving un-Venus-like Venustiano Carranza 
goes out like a bandit and takes money from banks or money 
equivalents in whatever he can lay his hands on. There are 
daily desertions among the soldiers to Villa, and other bandit 
leaders, if they can pay the soldier's wage. 



PALACE BLOODSHED 



THE National Palace is nearly three thousand feet long 
and is said to stand on the site of the halls of Monte- 
zuma. It isn't a work of architectural art, but is 
rather like a jail, yet it has many works of pictures, 
statuary, marble and carved art within some of its scores of 
rooms. Soldiers guard the gateway and doors. One cannot 
go through the rooms without a written pass. We walked 
through the vast open court. Here Porfirio Diaz had a feast 
that rivaled Belshazzar's and that of Heliogabalus. There 
were lights, entertainments, gold ornaments and lace, 500 cos- 
tumed servants to wait on the guests and they licked up more 
than 20 carloads of champagne. We were led through halls, 
private living rooms furnished by ]\raximilian, who knew how 
to spend the people's money, through public reception parlors 
where diplomats and ambassadors stalked in full dress parade, 
and in ballrooms where dark beauty had shone as at Windsor 
or Versailles. Then we went out to a small balcony facing the 
plaza where the president comes to flim-flam his subjects and 
abjects with fair promises. 

In the cabinet room I sat in the Porfiro Diaz chair which 
no one has been able to fill since he left, and looked at the 
superb table, chairs, carpets, chandeliers and furnishings. The 
guide then showed me bullet marks on the tables, walls and 
curtains, blood blots on the floor, and the door through which 
Madero escaped only to be caught later and killed. These 
cabinet members always carried weapons. Presidents and 
high officials in this room never knew when they might be 
assassinated. 

To be president or dictator in Mexico is to have the sword 
of Damocles hanging overhead all the time. Rulers sail here 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 183 

on a sea of blood and go out of office on that same sea. Red- 
handed revolution puts them in the chair and red-handed revo- 
lution thrusts them out. 

The garden is a quiet, pretty place w^ith fountains, flov^ers 
and statues where Maximilian loved to w^alk, sit or dream. 
The v^all v^as in shadow where life had stood and been shot. 

"We entered a room where Madero was imprisoned and 
then walked out to the stable where, according to one story, he 
was tortured and killed. Madero 's slogan was "free land." 
The poor fellow meant well but couldn't deliver the goods. 
Though honest he had neither the education nor executive 
ability to realize his ideal. He was surrounded by traitors, 
intrigue and a people who cried "Hosanna" one day, "Cru- 
cify Him" another day, and then applauded Huerta. Ma- 
dero 's enemies said many mean things about him — that in 
religion he was a spiritualist, in speech a wind-jammer, in 
life a faddist, and worst of all, that his execution on the piano 
entitled him to be executed. The stable stalls were filled with 
many splendid, spirited steeds of Carranza and his generals. 
Carranza keeps his horses well fed, housed and groomed in 
almost immaculate stables, while his poor peon subjects starve 
in squalor. Here a horse is more cared for than a human 
being. 

The rest of the pala^^e building is given over to ministerial 
offices and soldier barracks. We were permitted to see the 
vice-regal throne, with its covered and gilded rosewood chair, 
and the crimson velvet canopy over head. It didn't look very 
comfortable. Uneasy sits the seat that wears a crown. A 
farmer sitting in his old hickory, rush-bottomed rocking chair, 
on his front porch, after his barn chores are done, is more 
comfortable and happy than any man who ever occupied a 
throne. 

The Mexican "liberty bell" hangs over the main gateway 
of the palace. It is the one the patriot priest, Hidalgo, rang 
on the night of September 16, 1810, to call the people of 
Dolores to arms and strike for liberty. At each anniversary 
the president comes out at midnight, rings it and goes to bed 
to dream of how he can wring the necks of the people the 
next day. 



184 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

LOVELY ALAMEDA 



AFTER a pious pilgrimage to a half dozen churches, 
with their very few worshipers, it was refreshing to 
visit the Alameda. From gloomy aisles, pillars and 
incense, we went to God's temple where the sky was 
the roof, the trees the pillared aisles, the birds the choir, the 
flowers the perfumed incense, the sparkling fountains the holy 
water and the masses the throngs of happy boys, girls, men 
and women who walked and rested, talked, read and played 
games. This scene of beauty is where years ago heretics and 
apostates, who would not obey the iron rule of the church, 
were brought, tied to a stake and burned to make a Roman 
Catholic Mexican holiday. Hell then and heaven now, yet 
would you believe it — 'there are many alive who would repeat 
the Inquisition infamy if they could. The motto "Dios y 
libertad" — "God and Liberty," was formerly translated by 
the church, "Your idea of God and liberty as I give it to you." 
The Alameda is a sort of Versailles with fountains, trees, 
gardens, walks, seats and statues of nymphs, warriors, gods 
and goddesses all on a big and beautiful scale. How long will 
it be before some profane general lifts his ax against these 
trees and makes it another destroyed Zocala? High noon 
brought out thousands who came to take auto joy rides down 
the Paseo de Reforma to see and to be seen. 



JOY RIDES 

|lFE'S joy rides are many — Santa Glaus at Christmas 
time with his reindeer and sleigh full of presents; 
when we "hitched" onto wagons and carts with our 
sleds; the "straw" rides we took with our school 
mates; the first buggy ride with our sweetheart; the hack 
that brought us from the church altar to our home fireside; 
the time we trundled the baby buggy in the park ; the tour we 
took by rail or ship to near or far away lands; the auto we 
filled with orphan children or with holiday provisions for the 
poor. 




THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 185 

There are rides that give grief and pain for promised joy 
— when people return from the cemetery fighting over what 
their dead uncle or aunt has left them; when boys and girls 
steal an auto, smoke and drink, stop at a roadhouse, violate 
the law of God and man, are finally brought in a patrol wagon 
to the court and land in jail. Anthony and Cleopatra set a 
bad example in their barge joy ride on the Nile for many weak 
and wanton souls. 

The demand today is for a new religion of having a good 
time with the one commandment of "Eat, drink and be mer- 
ry." H*uman nature proves that a life of pleasure is a life of 
pains, that society life is one of the most unhappy in the world 
and that we seldom get joy just when and where we look 
for it. 

Nature's world is full of joy and gladness. Waves ripple, 
shadows play, plants and flowers waltz with the wind, birds 
sing, kittens frolic, dogs jump and children shout and run. 
Recreation is necessary for maturer years. Men and women 
must be more than cogs in life 's grinding wheel. 

True joy is good, not evil. Papist and Puritan made the 
mistake of having no place for joy; to be happy was sin; to 
starve, wear old and homely clothes, mope and drivel was 
regarded a God-like grace. 

Pleasure may be abused by making it essential and not 
incidental. Many an Esau barters his life for a mess of pot- 
tage. Even heathen Cicero said, **He is no man who spends a 
whole day in pleasure." 

No man may tell you what you must eat, drink, think or 
wear. You are a distinct soul in the world making personal 
history and to be individually judged at last. What helps you 
may hinder another, one man's food is another man's poison, 
the stylish clothes of another would make you look like a fool. 

A simple test of joy is to avoid what the Bible condemns; 
what weakens your body and mind ; what confirms you in the 
empire of any evil habit or sin ; what you can 't afford to spend 
the time or money for ; what makes you ashamed of yourself 
next morning, or to look in th^ face of the friend whom you 
were with the night before. Laugh at the old man and wom- 
an, pass the church, and "pooh-hoo" the Bible and its Christ. 
*'Let thy heart cheer thee in the day of thy youth, but know 



186 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

thou that for ail these things God will bring thee into judg- 
ment." 

Nehemiah said, "The joy of the Lord is your strength." 
Man is animal, plus. This world's joy can't fill a human soul. 
Conscience stings, death terrorizes and nothing but peace with 
God, who is Father, not fate or force, brings joy. 

Church members often mope around as if God were dead, 
Satan supreme ruler and nothing but hell was beyond the 
grave. It is a Christian's duty to be joyful no matter what 
may happen in loss of wealth, health and friends. If the Bible 
is true God is our Father, Christ our Elder Brother and heaven 
our eternal home. Such joy brings strength to self and en- 
couragement to others. Happy in what we are and do, earthly 
temptations and trials have little power. Full of joy we are 
not weakly dependent on the world. 

Three enemies lie in wait to give us a "puncture" or 
"blowout" on Life's highway and they are debt, worry and 
hurry. 

Debt — Pay as you go and don't go farther than you can 
pay. In grabbing for the large we lose the little. There are 
legitimate business risks and obligations but there are many 
illustrations of men who mortgage the future with burdens of 
debt that make them slaves to the present. 

Worry — Too often we are anxious about what never was 
and isn't to be. AYorry gives us weights instead of wings so 
that we sink instead of soar. Worry is a poison that sickens 
our body, a sword that stabs our brain, a millstone that 
presses our heart, making us care little for food, exercise and 
friends, and a blow that paralyzes our will. 

Hurry — We all run in high gear. There is much money to 
make and little time to make it. We must have a larger bank 
account than our neighbor's, and our wife must wear the 
finest dress and hat in the block. Rest, reading, family asso- 
ciation and thought of spiritual things are left in the mad race 
for power and pelf. Health, happiness and heaven are risked 
as we rush along. It is time to remember that if we rest by 
life's way we will not reach death's cemetery so soon. 

Elijah took a joy ride to heaven in a chariot with horses of 
fire. He had been walking and talking with Elisha, and 
though knowing death was near, he had no sudden misgiv- 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 167 

ings of fear. He had done his brave work against Jezebel and 
the Baal priests of his age and calmly died as he lived, ready 
and rejoicing when God took him up. 

Let us "prepare" for in three days, more or less, we may 
be called to cross Death's Jordan. Charon's boat still plies 
its trade between time and eternity with no submarine or tor- 
pedo to stop his ferrying. May this last ride be the most 
joyous of all because of the hope of forgiveness and immor- 
tality at God's right hand where there are pleasures forever- 
more. 



BRUTAL BULL FIGHTS 

MIEXICANS have always liked to fight the bull, wheth- 
I er it was a Papal or four-footed one. The billboards 
advertised a bull fight for Sunday at 3 p. m. Next 
to the pleasure of killing each other is the joy of bull 
fight and cock fight. Bull fights are said to be prohibited now. 
Imagine our surprise to find this one advertised in Mexico 
City. People told us it would be a mock, amateurish one, but 
we went to the big steel and concrete bull ring and saw the 
real thing, for two bulls were killed in a bungling, brutal way. 

Brutality has always characterized Spanish bull fights. 
Years ago it was the Mexican's Sunday afternoon recreation 
after his arduous church duties. Then crowds came, paid 
large money and Porfirio Diaz took 15 per cent of the gate 
receipts. Later the old, wooden ring gave way to the steel 
and concrete amphitheatre that cost seven hundred thousand 
dollars and seated 20,000 people. Tourists were accustomed 
to call this the big treat of the week and the bull fight, her- 
alded far and near, drew many visitors. Carranza, who sailed 
to the Presidency on a sea of blood, threw out a sop to the 
world by a press report that he was too tender hearted to 
permit any further bull brutality and had prohibited the 
game. But seeing is believing. We saw a bull fight on Sun- 
day. Carranza was "elected," two bulls were killed and 



188 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

others tormented, yet on our return to the city, when we 
spoke of it, we were disbelieved by those who said, "You must 
be mistaken — there were bull fights in Mexico City, but not 
now." This incredulity and public unbelief is true in many 
other ways. Finally they admitted there might have been an 
amateur bull fight but were sure no bull was killed. Cas- 
sandra's prophecy was disbelieved, so in the United States 
people are slow to believe what they don't want to believe, or 
have not read or seen with their own eyes. Let me escape 
from Mexico to the United States and tell of the robbery, 
raping, maltreating, murdering conditions there and illus- 
trate them with photos taken on the spot, and I will be laughed 
at or called a liar. If I showed photos and gave ocular proof 
I would be suspected of being a movie fiend and of having 
arranged and set the scenes to get a fake picture. I was 
repeatedly told that when I left Mexico I would not be be- 
lieved by brainless politicians, bigoted clerics and mercenary 
merchants, that they would put me in the Ananias Club, make 
me a follower of Grulliver and Munchhausen and a son of the 
devil, "The Father of Lies." "Well, that makes no difference. 
The sun shines, though a blind man may not see it ; birds sing, 
though ears of the deaf are stopped. When you can tell the 
truth there's no use lying about it. Denial of fact does not 
destroy it. 

The bull ring loomed up like a Coliseum. We secured a 
shady seat, not only to keep out of the sun and heat, but prin- 
cipally to avoid the tough gringo-hating crowd on the sunny 
side. The large amphitheatre had but a small attendance. 
Behind the director's box sat one hundred soldiers with their 
guns ready to "shoot the bull," that is, to throw terror into 
the election day crowd if any riot started. The band played 
"Toreador" and this was followed by an amateur perform- 
ance that would make a Madrid matador smile. 

The trumpet blew and from the main entrance a dozen men 
marched into the ring — chulos with red cloaks, banderilleros, 
a matador followed by a man driving three mules dragging a 
chain, and last of all a man pushing a wheelbarrow. The 
pomp and circumstance of what I had seen in Spain were 
wanting. Instead of silver, velvet, gold and lace the per- 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 189 

formers looked like Liverpool bums as they marched up to 
the director's box and saluted him. Then the ring was cleared 
of everyone but the matador and the chulos. Another gate 
was opened and the matinee idol of the performance, Mr. 
Bull, entered. Disappointed at the small audience, he insisted 
on giving a very poor performance. He looked about, dis- 
dained to notice the red handkerchief put to his nose, waved 
his tail when the banderilla barbs were thrust into his shoul- 
ders, and replied to the hissing crowd by turning towards the 
gate. To use a stage term he got the hook and was pulled in. 

The second bull act was worse than the first. This bull, 
instead of directing all his attention and energy to the mata- 
dor, spent it in trying to push through the gate or hurdle the 
fence. Failing in this, he bellowed loud with disappointment. 
The gay barbs were stuck into him like pins in a cushion. He 
quivered and quailed, but fight he would not, and leaped 
around the ring several times as if it were a Marathon. They 
opened the gate and he made his ignominious exit. Thus 
ended the second bout. So far the only mad thing was the 
crowd, mad at the poor, tame bulls, mad at their poor 
performance and mad at the director who refused to give per- 
mission to the matador to kill the bull. A mad Mexican is 
more dangerous than a Madrid bull. The crowd threw their 
hats in the air, tore their hair, hooted, waved handkerchiefs 
and canes, shook fists and hurled curses at the director, de- 
manding their money back. To me this was very amusing and 
suggestive of a ball game when the bleachers are mad at the 
umpire. Then another of the bull family entered. After he 
had been bombarded with banderillas, the matador walked 
over to the director, made a bow and asked permission to 
improvise a little slaughter-house so as to furnish free beef to 
the poor for their Monday dinner. The stem features of the 
director relaxed, and moved with pity for the suppliant and 
to ward off the threatened riot, he consented. The crowd 
cheered and the amateur matador went forward to do the 
bloody deed. Ten minutes were spent to round up the bull 
and when he looked his bullship in the face the latter seemed 
to say, "What's the matter with you, I haven't bothered you, 
can't you let me alone?" The answer was a sharp thrust of 



190 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

the sword through the bull's body, not his heart, and the dazed 
bull started away. The butcher started after him, jerked the 
sword out and ran it through him again and again, it was a 
piece of clumsy, brutal, bungling business. The matador 
jerked out a dagger and attempted to penetrate the suppliant 
beast's brain. This brainless, heartless butcher could no more 
locate the bull's brain than he could its heart. The bull leaned 
forward in a dazed condition, almost kneeling as if in prayer 
to be put out of his misery. While the crowd was jeering at 
this mutt of a matador, a workman jumped over the wooden 
fence and with a short dagger gave the stroke that put the 
bull out of his misery and the matador out of his embarrass- 
ment. 

They do this. thing differently in Spain. One thrust of the 
sword writes the death warrant of the bull in his heart's 
blood. I have seen the bull pierced through the heart by a 
single thrust after which he settled down and was dead when 
he reached the ground. Spain's fight was skillful and cruel, 
but this Mexican show was amateurish and beastly. The ani- 
mal undertaker then came in with his mules, hitched the chain 
around the dead bull's neck and dragged him out. Another 
bull was brought in to be teased, tortured and killed in the 
same ignorant manner. On the whole it was a tame perform- 
ance except for a moment's real excitement when the bull 
came within one horn of goring the matador to death. 

From this tragedy we were treated to comedy. Some bull 
fighters, dressed up like clowns, came into the ring, teased the 
bulls, sat in chairs and permitted the bulls to upset them and 
chase them around. The last act was a free for all. A little 
Durham came in with crumpled horns. Immediately the 
whole rabble on the sunny side jumped out of their scats, 
leaped into the arena and began to chase him. As he neared 
my side of the ring I saw why, there were coins of silver 
twisted on wires to his head. It was a catch and catch as 
you can game, to grab and hold him by the tail while others 
held him by the horns and picked off the money. Round and 
round the bull led the chase until the money was all gone, the 
boys out of breath, and we went home feeling that, considering 
it was a Sabbath afternoon, we had had a "bully time." 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 191 

WORLD'S BEST BOULEVARD 



THE next number of a capital Sunday program is to 
drive along the Paseo de la Reforma to the Castle 

of Chapultepec. Maximilian was a political failure. 

It was beyond him to construct a permanent policy 
or lay down and perfect a successful government plan, but he 
did plan, construct and complete one thing that is his real 
monument, the Paseo de la Reforma. It is the park pride of 
this planet, the finest two-mile promenade drive in the world. 
It puts Berlin's Unter den Linden, Paris' Bois de Bologne 
and the Maximilian Platz of Vienna in the primer class. Old 
Mexico was low down and Maximilian wanted this avenue 
built up to be the centre of widening circles of humanity that 
should beat way up to the base of rock-bound Chapultepec. 
"With the Carlos IV statue as a hub, a statue that Humboldt 
affirmed was scarcely inferior to that of Marcus Aurelius in 
Rome, Maximilian planned to have radiating avenues with the 
grand Paseo as the main spoke to the castle. It is a broad, 
well-paved boulevard with double rows of shade trees on 
either side, stone seats for tired walkers and enough statues 
of heroes to fill a dozen museums or art galleries. Some of 
these statues are placed at intervals in the six big circles m 
the Paseo. Starting with the Juarez monument in the Ala- 
meda we passed by equestrian and Indian statues to the great 
Liberty Monument shaft. 

In this avenue, new and old, there was one statue that our 
guide paused before and described to us with deep feeling. 
It was of Guatemozin, Montezuma's nephew, the Aztec chief 
whom Cortez captured and tortured, accusing him of hiding 
the city's vast treasures. Guatemozin would neither give in 
nor up except to say the treasure had been thrown in the lake. 
Cortez soaked the Indian's feet in oil and placed them over 
red hot coals, but he bit his lips into silence and was still. 
One of his companions, who was being tortured with him, 
turned to his chief as if to have him confess and stop the tor- 
ture, but Guatemozin is said to have replied, "Am I then 
reposing on a bed of flowers?" Later in the Art Gallery we 
saw a picture of this scene where the artist makes the red 
glare of the fire heighten the glow of the brave Indian's 



192 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

determined faith. The cruel Cortez relented for a while and 
spared this brave Aztec only to hang him later. This one act 
puts Cortez in the damned class of Judas, and no DeQuinc^y 
has ever risen to apologize for the deed or seek to whitewash 
his blackened soul. 

In the da^'s of Porfirio Diaz the rich flowed through this 
Paseo artery of the blue blood in elegant equipages. Times have 
changed, money is scarce and those who have it fear to parade 
any style lest Carranza take it for the good of the govern- 
ment. Instead of wealth and beauty we saw mule-drawn car- 
riages filled with common people, and autos full of soldiers 
and disreputable women. In the drive we passed many pala- 
tial homes which the government had confiscated and turned 
into barracks. 

The sun was setting as we neared Chapultepec castle, the 
broad plain on either side stretched towards the mountain 
walls from which rise the two famous mountains, Popocatepetl 
and Iztaccihuatl. Leaving our driver under the shade of the 
old cypress trees we entered the brilliantly lighted cafe of 
Chapultepec where there was eating, drinking and dancing. 
It wasn't much to our taste and style but it is Mexico's swell 
society resort. On reaching the city again we fell in line with 
a surging crush of autos and carriage on Francisco ^Madero 
street. It was a jam of vehicles and a jelly of humanity. 



SERENADING A POET 



THE press is suppressed if it refers to any vital matter 
in ]\Iexico concerning the welfarci of the people. 
I^p^' Daily loot, murder, graft and bad banditry get no 
^^Mt^^ reference, so the editors were glad to have a poet 
arrive from Spain and thus be able to fill up their columns 
with his picture and poems. His name was Salvador Rueda 
and he ran a close second to Carranza, who must have been 
filled with envy at the space the verse-rhymer received in the 
papers. We saw the Andalusian bard by the merest chance 
and not because we were invited. "Walking down the main 
street one night at 10 o'clock we turned a comer and saw a 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 193 

crowd filling the street and walk by a hotel. It was mostly 
made up of girl and boy students, a troupe of modern trouba- 
dors serenading the guest poet in the hotel with Mexican 
national airs. Their leader passed out the sheet music, 
mounted the steps, waved his hand for a baton and led the 
voices. They sang low and loud, tragically and tremulously, 
in tune and out of tune. When an auto or carriage came by 
on this main thoroughfare the crowd refused to permit it to 
pass, pursed its lips into one big mouth saying, ' ' Sh-h-h ! ' ' 
Can you imagine such a scene in America unless the hero was 
a football, prize fight or political celebrity ? Think of a crowd 
blocking a street, singing songs at midnight in front of a 
leading hotel, keeping everybody awake, just for a Spanish 
poet. He came out and gave a balcony scene of his poetic pro- 
file, bowed and smiled but said nothing. His admirers sang 
again and he came out again, but would not break his silence 
with poetry or prose. One look at him was enough for me and 
when I left at midnight the crowd was still there. Perhaps 
the only way he did get rid of them was to drop several 
original stanzas of leaden verse on their heads. 



WANTED— A NEWSPAPER 

I HE progress of the centuries has been indicated by the 
milestones of the press. From the iron, brass and 
silver age we have reached the golden one of news- 
paperdom, the grandest temporal gift of Providence. 
One of the mightiest forces in our modern civilization is 
our daily press, which has often directly and indirectly been 
the pulpit's best ally. It has gone forth a Jason to slay the 
threatening dragons and bring back the nation's golden fleece. 
It has been a fist to strike illegal trusts, insurance dishonesty, 
corporation steals, rate discriminations and a Samaritan hand 
to clasp the panic-stricken, poor and disheartened of our own 
and other lands, 

A change has come over the spirit of this high ideal and 
some editors have become mean, mercenary, mendacious and 
muzzled. 




194 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

William Marion Reedy, the prominent newspaper man, 
declares the average newspaper is the supreme eorruptor of 
the age in which we live; that money is primary and truth 
and right secondary ; that income comes from sale of advertis- 
ing space ; that space is only valuable as the paper has circu- 
lation and that in their anxiety to get the biggest circulation 
editors and managers appeal to the ignorance, whim, preju- 
dice and passion of the reader. In newspaper words this is 
"hot stuff." To those who deny the charge and declare the 
object of the press is to educate public taste and elevate public 
morality let me refer to Mr. A. Maurice Low, one of America's 
leading journalists, who has contributed several significant 
articles in the Yale Eeview. To him the modem newspaper is 
a business rather than a profession, a purely commercial insti- 
tution like a drygoods store or hotel. No manufacturer sells 
his output at loss except the newspaper publisher. For his 
profit he depends not on the sale of the paper but on the 
advertiser. The advertising depends upon the circulation. 
The newspaper is no longer a free agent. It cannot print 
matter that might offend or injure large advertisers. Its 
hands are tied. "While posing as a missioner it groAvs rich on 
the profits of the merchant." "The advertiser must be treated 
with the same deference that an expectant nephew shows his 
rich uncle." 

Of course this isn't new to any of us but it is said by a man 
who speaks with authority from within the ranks of journalism 
itself, Mr. Low having been the Washington correspondent of 
the Boston Globe since 1886. If Sunday newspaper syndicates 
would print Mr. Low's articles or John D. furnish money 
enough to have them appear as full page display ads in every 
city and country newspaper it might do some good and so 
offset an edition which many people regard as the Devil's 
Bible where sin is printed in great primer and virtue in non- 
pareil; where colored supplement cartoons are not only comic 
but coarse, confusing and caricaturing art and nature in the 
minds of the children who pore over its pages, and where 
"news fitting to the night, black, fearful, comfortless and hor- 
rible," creeps and crawls through its columns. 

To the Sunday newspapers has been applied the Scripture^, 
"They could not see Jesus because of the press," by those who 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 195 

felt it was unnecessary, unlawful, disreputable, a thief of 
needed rest, a breaker up of the family altar, an enfeebler of 
conscience, and an unfitter for the sanctuary. Personally I 
read its headlines to know what specially to pray for, and as 
I think of the big sea of printer's ink in which the readers 
are to be drowned, I pray for them and for the guilty editors, 
whose small editorial reference to art, music, literature, relig- 
ion, foreign and political news is buried under a blanket sheet 
of assault, adultery, fiction, fashion, gossip, lies, murders, raids, 
sensations, sporting and theatrical news, worldly want ads 
and vicious advertisements. Christ was crowded out of the 
Inn at Bethlehem and if He came to the big cities Sunday 
morning he wouldn't get much space in their papers unless he 
paid for it. 

"Wanted: a Newspaper" would make a good full page ad 
and I would be willing to pay for it if I could get one with 
even one or two of the five following characteristics : 

Newsy: Everybody's doing something all the time and it 
is the business of the newspaper to report it even though its 
rival may have a "scoop" and its editor doesn't like the relig- 
ion or the race or the politics, the private or public life of the 
one who did it. The world wants and has a right to news 
which represents everything and everybody clerical, histori- 
cal, political, scientific, literary and sporting. 

Truthful: It's a proverb, "If you see it in the newspaper 
it isn't so." Lies white, gray and black are as easy as in Ham- 
let's time; lies of ads and editorials and politics and religion 
dictated by a gold pen or pencil. We no longer read novels 
for fiction but go to the daily papers. 

Clean: As in the time of Henry IV, "there's villainous 
news abroad," of gossip, slander, co-respondents, skeletons in 
home closets, and confessions of salacious scoundrels in public 
life. These are served with our meals in the Morning Stink- 
Pot, the Evening Sewer, and the Sunday Cesspool. 

What a home picture for a modern Hogarth to paint of 
father and mother, with their children gathered around, 
praying, "Angels and ministers of grace defend us from 
the ghoulish garbage of the press." 

Fearless: Napoleon said: "Four hostile newspapers are 
more to be feared than a thousand bayonets." Under a Re- 



196 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

publican form of government, as nowhere else, editors are not 
to show the white feather; not to echo public sentiment but 
to mold and make public opinion; not to supply a demand 
beneath but to demand a supply from above; to be in the 
forefront of reform, to commend the good, censure the bad, 
tell us what to fight against, or accept and make fellowship 
with as friends. 

Time was when the government censored the press; now 
the tables are turned and we have censorship of the govern- 
ment by the press for the people. Let the press fearlessly 
declare for all creeds, conditions and classes ; flash danger sig- 
nals to warn youth against sins of body and soul which sur- 
round them in country homes and lie in wait to destroy them 
in the city; inquire whether all the people are to have a 
square deal or the majority to be put in a corner of graft 
and special privilege by the minority; whether this govern- 
ment is to be of, by and for the people or for, by and of a 
set of elerico-politicians who disgrace the position they occupy, 
giving credence to Dr. Johnson's statement that "Patriotism 
is the last refuge of a scoundrel," or Walpole's, "Every man 
has his price." 

Free: Free press and free speech is America's motto. 
Here Cavour's idea of free church and free state are to be 
realized. The press must be free to speak according to the 
dictates of its own pious and patriotic conscience and not be 
bull-dozed or bought up, harassed or embarrassed as it is in 
Mexico and monarchially mismanaged countries, A paper 
should be free and not the slave of some fool, fanatical or 
financial backer; free to give "a square deal" and not let "I 
dare not wait upon I would." If the Devil were in town 
Saturday I would have him preach for me Sunday and if I 
had a newspaper I would report him Monday in order that 
the people might know what he said and reply for or against 
him Tuesday. 

This twentieth century is the age of humanity, not theoret- 
ically so much of Moses in Genesis as practically of men and 
women in their every day life. It is the mission of the press 
to touch life at every point; to ring out the false and ring 
in the true; to help reform drunkenness, slum settlement and 
social evils; give labor its due; right the wrongs of childhood 




THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 197 

and make this world a better place to live in, where the beau- 
tiful picture hung by the angel on the sky of John's beatific 
vision is realized. 

The aim, ambition and attainment of an ideal press will 
never be called "yellow" so long as the people know their 
editors have culture, backed by courage and consecration, for 
the American ideas of religion, education, liberty and 
patriotism. 



GRASSHOPPER HILL 

HAPULTEPEC is a rocky crag 150 feet high crowned 
by a castle. It seemed much higher as we climbed 
up, for the air was rare. There is an elevator 
through the solid rock into the palace for illustrious 
visitors or royalty to sneak in from a lark late at night. We 
were not in that class. Visitors have always been chal- 
lenged who have tried to reach the top of Chapultepec and 
we were compelled to show our passes before we were 
admitted. General Scott was forced to make one of his own 
in 1847 by blowing up the old powder mill, Molino del Key, 
in the rear, thereby commanding it from the two sides. He 
literally blew into the town with his 7,500 U. S. troops, for 
Chapultepec is the door and gateway of the city. 

Neither he nor we were the first discoverers because its 
name indicates that it was the summer-resort of the grasshop- 
pers, Chapultepec meaning "Grasshopper hill." Some say 
the Aztec chiefs walked with their many wives beneath the 
big old cypress trees, using the hill as a summer residence. 
The guide pointed out a sort of family burial lot and some 
figures of the Aztec chiefs carved on the base of the rocks. 
One large rock had the outline of Montezuma and it would 
seem Cortez tried to efface it, for he was jealous of any face 
but his own. 

Later the Spanish Viceroys liked the viewpoint and put 
up a palace befitting the glorious scenery. It remained for 
the usurper Maximilian to put on the finishing touches. 
Without doubt he had fine taste in respect to women, dress 
and luxurious surroundings. From Montezuma to Porfirio 



198 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

Diaz the castle has been the official residence of Mexico's 

rulers. 

Gibraltar suggests war, so does this rock hill. A military- 
school or college occupies the terrace of the palace and has 
been called Mexico's West Point. It is always an exclama- 
tion point to the visitor who looks out on the unrivalled 
view. Around it there is a park splendid with cypress trees, 
giants 175 feet high, many centuries old, with a waist line of 
more than fifty feet and with grey, Florida-like moss wigs and 
long whiskers. One grand, gloomy and peculiar cj^press is 
called the "tree of Montezuma" under which human proces- 
sions of the strong and weak, king and subject, lord and lady, 
rich and poor, have passed on into the grave. 

Nearby there is a spring known as Montezuma's bath that 
sends pure water to Mexico City over an aqueduct of nearly 
a thousand arches. It was here that Montezuma and his 
men, tired from play, came and took a plunge. Of interest, 
too, is the soldiers' monument erected to forty Mexican cadets, 
brave boys who were among the 4,000 under General Nicolas 
Bravo who surrendered to General Scott after a short but 
stubborn struggle. There is an astronomical observatory, yet 
no glass is necessary to see the glory of heaven above and 
earth beneath. The pauper peon, as well as star-eyed pro- 
fessor, may take in the beauty of the scenery. 

There is a government wireless by the lake and it out- 
towers the castle and trees. It is said to have been used in 
the interests of the German spy system. The beautiful park 
of Chapultepec has become a Daphne Grove since the revo- 
lution. Filthy lucre blinds the eyes of the caretakers. Not 
only men and women resort here at night, but any after- 
noon one may see young girls and boys, who according to 
Latin custom may not see each other at home except through 
iron bars, coming out with books under their arms as if to 
study poetry and nature, when their only object of contem- 
plation is passional human nature. 

We entered the castle throusrh a big arched gate with its 
statues of soldiers standiner eruard on each pillar. A barracks 
of Mexican soldiers is stationed here and two soldiers looked 
at our passes. They had watched us coming up the winding 
road just as they did when we returned by a steep stone 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 199 

stairway. If the visitor is a woman, young and pretty, no 
questions are asked. She is at once welcomed and will be 
invited to take her time and make herself at home. The girl 
who has a free and easy look gains easy admission to the 
castle. I saw a number of gay Mexican seiioritas here in the 
barracks, sitting in the windows playing cards with the sol- 
diers and smoking cigarets. The soldier rules Mexico today 
and La fille de regiment rules and ruins the soldier. Military 
rules and commands are strictly enforced, those of the Ten 
Commandments are ruled out. 

A trip through the castle convinced us that rulers had a 
high old time up here. There were mosaic floored corridors, 
kingly and queenly apartments and roof gardens for presi- 
dent and ambassador parties, where our diplomuts had their 
eyes blinded with beauty, their ears filled with music and 
their mouths shut with game dinners and champagne sup- 
pers. This was the place where government officials spent 
their time, energy and the people's money in royal revelry of 
eating, drinking, gambling, dancing and sporting on a par 
with the French court and courtesans. They came to the 
same end when the people rose up in revolutionary might, 
crushed these royal toys and threw them out. 

Maximilian was a bon vivant. The nude art in canvas, 
bronze and marble had no terror for him. His lady friends 
were welcome. Mosaic floors echoed to their tread, gorgeous 
mirrors reflected their fair forms, cut glass chandeliers and 
gold ornaments reflected the light of their eyes and the 
carvings and decoration suggested the form and color of 
proud, profligate Pompeii. 

The castle has a balcony corridor that overlooks the city. 
You cannot see out of the enclosing glass panels because of 
the leaded glass figures of men and women in them. The cus- 
todian slipped up to the glass figure of a pretty girl, lifted 
up her skirt, which was a little window pane, and gave us a 
magnificent view of — Mexico City. Here was unrolled before 
our bewildered eyes a panoramic paradise. Moses never saw 
a finer sight from Pisgah. Below lay a level green valley, 
golden fields, silver lakes, all stretching away fifty miles to 
mountain walls and peaks that Nature's brush had painted 
blue and purple. It was a heavenly view, unique and not to 



200 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

be compared to any -world beauty spots I had ever seen. In 
this valley lay the City of Mexico, to which as to mountains, 
distance lends enchantment. While it appeared like a New 
Jerusalem it was a City of Destruction, and just beyond those 
mountain walls of paradise were bands of bandits making 
hell on earth. 'Twas ever thus, things are not always what 
they seem, appearances of people and places are very deceit- 
ful. Heber was right, "Every prospect pleases and only man 
is vile." 

The view of Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl from Chapul- 
tepec is as grand and glorious as Kinchinjunga from Dar- 
.ieeling. If you don't believe it, go to the dictionary or 
India and look for yourself. In plain English the view from 
the castle of city, valley and mountains is great. But to be 
in the class of writers on Mexico I am compelled to say some- 
thing like this: "What overpowering emotion must have 
overwhelmed i\Iontezuma as he stood here on Chapultepec 
gazing over the Aztec Tenochitlan to the amethyst vista of 
Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl." Savy? 



GODLESS, GRAFTING GUADALUPE 

UADALUPE is the holy shrine and show of ^Mexico, 
three miles from the capital. We were glad to make 
a patriotic pilgrimage to this town of filth, fanatics 

and fiction to find one true fact at least, to wit, 

that in a small house here my Uncle Sam pulled off a big 
deal February 2nd, 184,8, when he signed a treaty with 
Mexico, thus settling the boundary line between Upper Cali- 
fornia and New Mexico. Uncle drew the map of ]\Iexico 
with the line of the Rio Grande on the east and Colorado on 
the west. We greased tlie IMexican greaser's palm with 
$1.5,000.000 and told him to go home and be quiet and we 
would assume certain of his other crying claims. 

Caudalupe was the Jerusalem, Mecca, Rome, and holy 
what-not and so forth of the i\rexicans. The sacred road that 
leads to it has been profaned by the hand of time and revo- 
lution. Statues and shrines, that welcomed pilgrims along 




THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 201 

this Via Sacra, are now fallen and crumbling. The modern 
up-to-date pilgrim takes the railroad or tram-car to the city 
of Gaudalupe. Years ago, on December 12th, there were 
special railroad excursions from all over Mexico to this shrine, 
bringing the faithful to pray and pay. Today the lid is on 
and much prohibition is enforced. 

A tram-car took us and two dozen dirty, devout Indians 
to Guadalupe. Walking through the shady little plaza we 
came to the church yard enclosure. Here was a row of stalls 
with cloth shade or umbrellas overhead and Indian vendors 
under them who were beckoning and calling us to buy their 
sacred candles, images of saints and saviours, little cakes 
which may only be had here, medals and talismans of the 
patron saint, crosses, rosaries and tiny little legs and arms 
symbolic of some suffering part of human anatomy. The 
church of Guadalupe is situated at the foot of the Tepeyacae 
hill, and this motley mob of money-makers makes your soul 
and stomach sick as if you had taken a dose of ipecac. It was 
like a country fair with its yelling and selling of religious 
wares. 

This big church was builded in the honor of the Virgin 
of Guadalupe. "We doffed our hats and entered. The cus- 
todian was polite and more so when we gave him a shiny 
piece of metal. It worked miracles. He showed us every- 
thing, the burial crypt beneath and the sacred little souvenirs 
of gold and silver representing the parts of the body that 
had been healed in answer to prayers to the patron Virgin. 
In one of the side rooms there was a wall covered with rude 
paintings and daubs made by the Indians. I saw one of a man 
being run over by a street car. It showed how the Virgin 
interposed and saved his life. Another of one drowning, and 
still another of a man being injured by an infuriated bull. 
Whatever the man escaped or recovered from — a sick bed, or 
a bad storm at sea — he gratefully sketched, scrawled or 
daubed and presented it to the church as a thank offering to 
the Virgin, or as an occular proof of his cure. Most of the 
pictures are from six to ten inches square and painted in all 
colors of the rainbow. In Europe and elsewhere I have 
visited art galleries with their thousands of religious sym- 
bolic and superstitious pictures, but never saw anything like 



202 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

this. However poor the art it was a true picture of the 
superstitious soul of the Indian and was painted with his 
heart's sineerest blood belief. 

This church has been a gold and silver mine to the clergy, 
and millions have been coined from the peon's belief. It has 
been estimated that the poor peons contributed fifty tons of 
silver which make up the candelabra, altar-rails, vessels, etc. 
The priest guide pointed out the gilt and gold vessels, silver 
railing and led us up the altar steps to the most holy of 
holies, the place of the miraculous picture of the Virgin, be- 
lieved by all the faithful to have been miraculously stamped 
on the scrape (blanket) of the Indian shepherd Juan Diego. 

"We obtained a close view of it and critically studied it 
this way and that, and very near as you might a Turner or 
Rembrandt to see how thick and in what way the paint was 
laid on, who the artist was and how he signed his name. But 
we found little satisfaction. There was no miracle in paint 
or skill. The real and only miracle being that any one could 
believe it to be such. This million dollar mar^^el was simplv 
a daub of thick paint on a piece of coarse, cheap canvas. It 
is out of reach and behind a crystal case framed with rich, 
gold border, yet it appears to have been touched and 
retouched in places where the thick paint dried up and fpll 
off. What fools these mortal Mexicans be. Let me give 
you the true history of this picture which has brousrht fame 
and fortune to this little city. No master Eanhael or modern 
IMillais ever painted such a valuable canvas. The sale of their 
divine pictures compared with this rough daub was glass to 
diamonds. 



A FAIRY STORY 



O 



\TE UPON A TIME— to be exact, December 9, 1531, 
for it is strange that dates of fact are forgotten 
and fancied things are definite — a poor Indiana re- 
cently converted, who went by the name of Juan 
Diego, was on his way to early mass in ]\Iexico City. Tired of 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 203 

his long and early tramp, he paused at the foot of the hill Tepe- 
yacac, where he heard a bird chorus, and looking up saw a rain- 
bow. SLi'.ldenly a voice called him by name. He hurriedly climbed 
the hill and was rewarded by seeing a most beautiful lady, whose 
raiment was brighter than a spotlight, and was turning the 
rocks and thorns into a glory of heaven. She modestly intro- 
duced herself in Mexican speech as God's mother, told 
him to go to Mexico City and tell Bishop Zumarraga to hurry 
and make plans, raise money and build her a chapel here so 
that those who were sick, tired or didn't care to walk three 
miles to church might worship her. Juan Diego, like Joan of 
Arc, believed in the voices and vision, and with a "Yes, mam, 
I'll do as you say," hurried to the Bishop of Mexico. His rev- 
erence had something to do besides wasting time on a poor 
crazy Indian and he told him he would see him later about 
it. Juan's tender heart was broken for he feared he might 
see the good lady again on his return and be compelled to 
tell her the bishop thought he was either a liar or lunatic. 
Sure enough she was there to meet him and asked the Bishop 's 
reply. Then as the sun set and a great shadow of fear fell on 
his heart, he told her that he had been turned down. But 
the bright lady comforted him, repeated her request and com- 
manded him to return to the Bishop next day. Like Paul, 
Juan was not disobedient to the heavenly vision. This time 
Rev. Zumarraga acted as if he were born in Missouri and 
wanted to be shown, and he sent his servant with Juan and 
bade them bring back some proof or sign of the twice-told 
tale interview with the good lady. Reaching the hill 
they found her waiting for them and she repeated her former 
command to hasten and build her a church. Juan went home 
first to think about it and on his arrival found his uncle 
very sick. He started at once to return to town, and to 
avoid meeting his fair, good lady friend, he took a new route. 
Imagine his consternation when, looking back, he found her 
coming down the hill to meet him. Poor Juan, a sick uncle 
and a persistent woman. This time she said she would give 
him her credentials, a sign that the old Bishop would under- 
stand and obey. Looking at Juan and pointing to a pile of 
bare rocks she gently told him to go there and find some beau- 
tiful dew-kissed Spanish roses. Thereupon she did the slight 



204 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

of hand magician act, for wlien Juan got there the wilderness 
was blossoming like a rose. He hastily filled his blanket 
with them and hurried to the Bishop, threw them on his study 
floor with a "Now will you believe me," and as he picked up 
his blanket, lo and behold, the image of the Virgin was im- 
printed upon it. In some Avay not explained, the Bishop rec- 
ognized her features, said it was a true sign, proving all that 
Juan had told him so often. Then he proceeded to get a 
move on himself and began to build a ciiurch on Cerre del 
Tepeyacac, the hill where Juan swore the good lady had 
appeared to him on four different occasions. Now this 
blanket, tilma, or scrape of the shepherd Juan, on which the 
good lady had miraculously imprinted her face, as a sort of 
sacred trade-mark, is what they showed me so religiously 
guarded and preserved in this Guadalupe cathedral. There 
is no doubt about this being an "o'er true tale." Seeing is 
believing. If you doubt me, go to Guadalupe, hunt up the 
sexton, give him some money and you'll see something. 

It is incredible tliat this fairy, fable story should ba 
believed. The Roman Catholic historian Icazbolceta told the 
Archbishop Labastida that it was pure fake, there was no 
Juan Diego or Virgin apparition, and that the Virgin face 
scrape was painted by some lying, get-rich-quick quack who 
deliberately limned the face and lied about it to hold up the 
peons and the people. No matter, there was millions in it 
for the church. But in religion there is no "damned error" 
but some sober brow blesses it with a text. This fake side- 
show has run a many years' stand and the people stand and 
fall for it today. While we were in the church we saw well- 
dressed, apparently intelligent women and ignorant, filthy 
peons creep on their knees towards this figured canvas. 

Moses built all things according to the "pattern in the 
mount" and this church was put up and finished in 1533 on 
the fabulous foundation, of this story. Indians come for 
miles on sore knees and feet, hungry and thirsty to visit this 
shrine. Koyalty as well as rags does the same. In 1895, 
with Papal consent, and with an archbi.shop from the U. S., 
the .shrine of Guadalupe was advertised into greater popu- 
larity and value as a money-getter by placing a large, new, 
expensive crown over the canvas faced head. 




THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 205 

HOLY STEPS 

HE NAME "Virgin of Guadalupe" has always been 
a potent charm for wild inspiration. Under the 
banner of Guadalupe the Indians fought fanatically 
for their independence. At other times, dressed up 
with all their paint, furs and feathers, they crowded this 
altar and kicked up their heels in one of their sacred dances. 
Then the town of Guadalupe was like a big circus, the church 
the big show, and the holy well a side show. Bazaars sold 
holy junk, booths were filled with a noisy eating, drinking 
rabble. When night came the Indians, full of pulque, prac- 
tised tricks and took advantage of feast day indulgences 
that made it a divine debauch, a carnival of carnality. Pious 
precepts gave way to brothel prostitution and the H'oly 
Trinity took a back seat for Bacchus, Venus and Terpsichore. 
Hon. W. Thompson, our U. S. minister to Mexico some years 
ago, said that some one who had seen these awful orgies 
declared the motto above the Guadalupe image, **Non fecit 
toliter omni natione," should be translated, "She never made 
such fools of any other nation." I am not so sure, I have 
seen the same style of sensuous excitement and spirituality 
at St. Anne de Beaupre out from Quebec, at Copocobana and 
at Lourdes. 

"With my heart filled witli disgust and no devotion I 
started for the sacred stone stairway leading up the hill to the 
chapel. On the way we passed through tortuous narrow 
streets and alleys before we came to the base of the hill, 
above which is perched the chapel of Guadalupe. I saw 
people crawl on their calloused knees up these steps as if it 
were the Sancta Seala in Rome. There were over 200 steps, 
the sun was very warm, and not feeling as pious as the 
natives, we walked up. As we paused at times to rest we 
were importuned for alms by penitential beggars. Sellers of 
holy stuff shouted their special, sacred, souvenir wares. On 
and up we sailed, looking for the famous oft-photographed 
monument of the stone mast and sail which many years ago 
was erected here by the stairway, to show the gratitude of a 
sea captain. He was caught in a storm and vowed he woul3 
erect a ship to the Guadalupe Virgin if he escaped ship- 



206 THE DEVIL IN MEXJCO 

Avreck. He reached shore but must have been a financial 
sliipwreck, for only a part of his full-rigged promise was 
carried out. Perhaps it was the thought that he himself 
and not she had brought him to land, his works and not 
faith in her, and that the mast and sail were enough of an 
investment. We looked around for it in vain. It had not 
been blown over or sunk by some dirigible or submarine. A 
spanking breeze had slapped it and turned it over a few 
months before. 

The cemetery is back of the chapel. "We walked through 
this populated city of the dead with its trees, tombs, flowers 
and funeral urns. Santa Anna and other famous Mexicans 
rest here after their life's fighting, fitful fever. The view 
of the valley is glorious, and I trust these immortals view it 
from a sublimer height. 



SACRED SEWER WATER 



THE chapel of the sacred well is the second great 
attraction in Guadalupe. I have seen the legendary 
footprint of Jesus on the Mount of Ascension in 
Jerusalem, and of Peter in the Roman prison. They 
were large dry prints, the print here is large and wet, for 
you must remember that when the Virgin appeared to our 
friend Juan Diego, at the base of the hill, she stamped her 
foot, in emphasizing her order to the Bishop, and forthwith 
a spring of mineral water — chalybeate — gushed forth. The 
water has an iron taste from which it is a fair deduction that 
she wore a shoe with iron nails in the heel. Here was another 
golden opportunity to build another church bank called a 
chapel. It is a cupola-shaped affair resembling the Baptistry 
at Pisa. Labor was contributed by the natives as a religious 
act. The devout women of the higher class and best families 
united with the poor peon class, working side by side until 
it was completed. 

Here thronged thousands of souls, thirsty pilgrims, the 
lame, blind, sore, sad, sick in muscle, nerve and bone, all heirs 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 207 

to humanity's ills. Why? To drink the miraculous waters 
of this holy Carlsbad, Saratoga, Blue Lick, and be cured. 
Were they? They were according to the certificates and 
written oaths of those who came and drank of the spring 
water that coursed with life current from stomach to heart 
and through the veins, purifying their blood and making them 
feel healed from the heel of their foot to their crown of black 
hair. But this is ancient history. This place in time grew 
into a pesthouse, the spring was polluted and became a 
"savor of death unto death" and not of "life unto life." It 
was a sewer and no longer a spring. The blessed holy water 
had become a curse, a cesspool and crime against public 
health. The government stepped in, not the spring, but the 
building, barred the spring inside and closed the door out- 
side. I looked in through the bars, saw where literal mil- 
lions had slaked their fevered thirst and noted the pavement 
worn by weary feet that had traveled many blistered 
miles. Prohibition is now in force. The health commis- 
sion has put up the bars and they are closed. The stench 
from this spring was fierce and the atmosphere was one of 
squalor as well as superstition. They have a proverb, as the 
Romans have of their Treves Fountain, that whoever drinks 
of this water will be compelled to return to Mexico. I doubt 
it. One good drink of this would be fatal and the man would 
never have a chance to get away, to say nothing of returning. 
Horatio, can such things be and not excite our special won- 
der and disgust? 

To think that this Guadalupe picture and spring were once 
the most prominent things in Mexico and there was nothing 
anywhere like them. It would be a spiritual and sanitary 
blessing if the next earthquake that visits Mexico would come 
out here on a pilgrimage, shake to pieces and bury this old 
monument of idolatry more senseless than the old Indians 
erected to their Toltec and Aztec deities. This ulcer sore 
and cancer should be cut out of the body that pretends to 
be religious. 

Good-bye to thee, godless Guadalupe, and to thy Virgin, 
about the only one there according to report. It is high 
time this ehurehly superstitious cruelty to the Indians is 
thrown on the scrap heap with the Inquisition. 



208 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

INQUISITION INFAMIES 



HE INQUISITION, that branch of the tree of clerical 
life, M-as planted by Tiber hands in ]\Iexican soil 
and grew like a green bay tree from 1574 to 1820, 
two and one-half centuries. What was once the old 
Palace of the Inquisition in Mexico City is now a medical 
college. Here the Christ-denying Jew and hierarchy-hating 
heretic were tortured. Now this building is one of help, not 
hurt, where life is saved and not destroyed. We entered 
the light, arcaded patio and saw the noble statue of some hu- 
manitarian. Students were lounging about and blackboards an- 
nounced the classes. In another part of the building we 
entered a door with the sign "Banos" over it, groped through 
dark corridors and stepped into a court where women, who 
live in the small cells, were mangling and hanging up clothes 
on the rack. What a change from the time when prisoner 
heretics were dragged out of these dungeons, mangled with 
torture and placed on racks to get them in proper condition 
for auto de fe burning — for that was the kind of auto they 
had then. 

I had seen the Inquisition buildings in Spain, Peru and 
Colombia and was treated here to another chapter of this 
religious amusement in Mexico City. Unbelievers were 
rounded up, tortured, their money confiscated for the holy 
office, they were publicly whipped and burned. The occasion 
was a holiday. People came for many miles. There were 
processions through the streets, throngs on the walks and in 
the windows. The sport drew like a bullfight, horse race or 
ball game. It was fashionable to ask, "Were you at the 
Inquisition yesterday? It was fine sport!" A large plat- 
form was built. Pious teachers, who denounced Aztec sacri- 
fices and religion, whipped 124 penitents at a time through 
these ]\Iexican streets and burned 19 effigies of those who 
escaped. The records show that in 1574 "21 pestilent 
Lutherans" were executed. From this year to 1600 there 
were "879 processes in ]\Iexico alone and 1,402 in the follow- 
ing century." The main articles of furniture in the Holy 
Office were the thumb-screws, chains, whips, racks and 
torches. What is done now by bandits was done then by 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 209 

bigots. An eye-witness wrote: "May it please God, that all 
be to his glory; the confusion of enemies, and the praise of 
Jesus Christ, the blessed Virgin and all the heavenly court; 
and may God prosper this holy and necessary office to the 
extirpation of all heresies." 

Wherever such Inquisition ideas prevailed humanity was 
dwarfed and made dead. Its results are seen in the backward 
condition today of Spain, Peru, Colombia and Mexico. God 
grew tired of this. He declared this cup of iniquity was 
full, and when the Mexican patriot Morelos was sacrificed, 
the Inquisition blood flowed over and ceased in 1820. The 
last year was spent fighting liberalism, and its death knell 
was rung November 26th, 1815, when Jose Maria Morelos 
was killed. This man, in honor of whom a Mexican state was 
named, who was Hidalgo's successor, a brave and brilliant 
soISier, a frank, firm and magnetic character, a thoroughly 
innocent and pious soul, was accused and condemned in 
advance. The Inquisition body gave the verdict that he was 
"An unconquered heretic, an abettor of heretics and a dis- 
turber of the ecclesiastical hierarchy; a profaner of the holy 
sacraments; a traitor to God, to the king and to the Pope." 
Turned over to the state he was executed. He placed his silk 
handkerchief over his eyes, walked, dragging his chains, knelt 
and calmly said, "Lord, thou knowest if I have done well; if 
ill, I implore thy infinite mercy." The next minute he was 
shot through the back and fell dead. Called a traitor, the 
gate of envy was shut and the door of immortality was 
opened to his patriot, martyr soul. His death was the death 
of the Inquisition. When he fell and went to heaven, it fell 
and went to hell whence it came. 

When this Inquisition office was abolished some strange 
things came to light, just as when the Bastile was overthrown 
in Paris and the San Juan prison at Vera Cruz. There were 
living skeletons, naked, filthy, bone bundles of humanity, men 
unkept, unshaved and in driveling idiocy. A poor, old man 
was found bound to a wooden cross, his hands and feet fas- 
tened by iron rings — he had suffered this living hell of tor- 
ment thirty years. In Puebla the old house of Inquisition 
was made over and a number of wall cells were broken open, 
revealing the skeletons of victims who had been buried alive. 




210 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

^Yith such beginnings and education there is no surprise 
at what Mexico is now. Its abolition was good riddance of 
hell's master work, and it went down never to rise again 
when Spain's power was broken in 1821. God said "Let 
there be light," but no translation of that Hebrew phrase 
means a light of the martyr burning at the stake. The rev- 
erent student of Scripture does not wonder that God's 
"slaughtered saints" have been avenged, that Spain has lost 
her possessions, and the Roman church her power in Latin 
America. 



COFFIN-NAILS 



TJHE BUEN TONO factory leads the world in the manu- 
facture of coffin-nails. Everybody in ]\Iexico smokes, 
pa, ma, brother and sister. I had seen the tobac- 
co factories in Havana where, in addition to cigars, 
8,000,000 nails were made a. day. The Buen Tono plant 
here is wholly given over to cigarets and turns out 20,000.000 
c'aily. Black-eyed girls and old women were feeding 
endless strings of strong, black tobacco into hundreds 
of machines. I watched in wonder and asked myself what 
greater good might have been accomplished if these 
brains had invented machines for greater ends. Carranza 
finds difficulty in getting ammunition to fight the rebels, but 
so long as this factory runs he need not despair, for hundreds 
are slowly killed all over Mexico every year by these cigarets. 
They are mainly made for Mexico and the demand is greater 
than the supply. Thousands starve for food, but work, beg 
or steal to get these smokes. A photo or statue, to be true 
to Mexican life, should have the little roll in hand or mouth. 
It would be as unusual to see a man without clothes as to 
see him without his cigaret. The biggest thing here is the 
little cigaret. The man who first made, sold and carried 
them around has prospered until his factory is the largest in 
the world. It occupies acres, employs tliousands and conducts 
a church and hospital for its help. If one of tho girls wants 
1o marry a fashionable wedding ceremony is given her. If 
later she is ill she is cared for in their hospital and if she 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 211 

dies she is buried by them. From cradle to coffin she is 
robed in tobacco wrappers. Most people would not care if 
the church, palace and museum were destroyed, but were this 
plant to be reduced to ashes, life would lose its charm and 
not be worth living. Cigaret smoking is a dirty, unhealthy, 
expensive habit and a body, mind and character-killer. The 
old volcano Popocatepetl has given up smoking and it would 
be a blessed thing for his admirers to do the same. 



ITURBIDE AND HIS HOTEL 

THE ITURBIDE HOTEL, now used by the public, was 
once the private palace of the Emperor Iturbide. If 
after traveling through Mexico your depressed feel- 
ings are in search of a fit abode be sure and come to 
this hotel. Here you may meditate and muse on the melan- 
choly fate of Mexico. It would make fine headquarters for 
an undertaker's convention or assemblage of ghosts. The 
freak facade, prison wall entrance, broad, dreary, deserted 
patio and the patio arcades are full of fearful shadows. I 
walked this chamber of horrors one night and was followed 
all the way through to the other street by the dismal echo of 
my own footsteps. Even the sunshine in these corridors 
wears a sickly pallor like a poor prisoner within walls. I 
never found friends smoking and chatting in this patio. Low 
spirits prevailed and that may be the reason why an elevator 
has been put in to bear them up. 

Iturbide! I wonder what "It" would say if he came 
back here to live? As a hotel it is like his reign — a dismal 
failure. The army is the open door to the presidency. At 
the first Mexican insurrection Iturbide led a force against the 
revolutionists, gained a victory and became their leader. 
Failing to make Mexico an independent monarchy, he became 
emperor and declared the crown hereditary. Santa Anna 
objected with his forces, proclaimed a Eepublic and told 
"It," who wanted to be "it," to go to Italy for his health 
and happiness with a pension large enough to pay his board 
bill at any pension. He went and tried to come back, for 



212 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

he -was politieallj^ homesick, but was arrested on his arrival 
and shot. Iturbide was an "If I were king" for a day. He 
was emperor for only fifty-one weeks and was limited to 
$25,000 yearly to pay his board bill. 



COCKFIGHT GAMBLING 

^^ lOCKFIGHTS are more frequent and regularly 
\iy I attended than church services in Mexico City, Not 
satisfied, as in most Latin capitals with one a week, 
the people have them every day. From the pursuit 
of cockfights and "chickens" you might conclude they were 
all brought up on the farm. When my Express friend, 
Darnielle, learned I was a minister, he expressed surprise that 
I had not seen a cockfight. He called a carriage, we went 
and occupied front seats in the big pit. The place was elec- 
tric-lighted and vv'heu tobacco, beer and drinks were brought 
in, ladies from box seats above looked down on us as upon 
the other game birds and made their bets ad libitum. It was 
the same old game, only on a larger scale, with more money 
exchanged and more excitement. Men with pulque faces, as 
red as the fighting cocks' combs after they had pecked each 
other, moved around us. Outside of the pit there was a large 
training quarters, where the game cocks are carefull}'- cared 
for. Weeks before they fight they have a special diet and 
their bill of fare is studiously prepared. This is where they 
learn to win and wear their gaffs or spurs. When booted 
and spurred they fly at each other and one of them falls 
dead. The birds are shipped from Texas and Georgia and 
have better care and food than the city poor. A good rooster 
is worth fifty dollars, much more than a poor peon. Thej' are 
lined up like prize roosters at a poultry show and their coops 
are comfortable and clean. They have feathered sparring 
partners who try them out every day. 

This cockfighting crowd has a pit and property furnished 
up-to-date, though the Congress building stands a steel skele- 
ton, and the theatre, with its big unplaced stones lying around, 



looks like the ruined temple of Diana. Both these buildings 




THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 213 

were started years ago and might have been finished, but they 
stand today mute evidences of monumental graft. Viva the 
bullring and cockpit is the Mexican cry. 



A PERFUMED PARADISE 

|OCHIMILCO is an ugly name for a pretty place. It 
means "field of fiowers." To reach the famous 
floating gardens of Mexico, that, unlike some soaps, 
do not float, we didn't take the long route of the 
Viga canal, but vv^ent by street car. Browning sings, " 'Twas 
roses, roses all the way," and you feel this way about flowers. 
Near the dusty plaza and dreary cathedral we found an oasis 
of fragrance and beauty, the flower market, which flourishes 
despite the deadly night shade of the cathedral. Cigaret- 
smoking men blocked our way and urged us to buy bouquets 
large as a barn door. They were not only big but beautiful 
in design, color and odor, a garden of flowers in themselves. 
I made signs to the man to inform him that I was married 
and not dead yet, though this was a beautiful inducement to 
enter either state. 

A flower is the one bright spot in the Mexican's life. He 
is crafty and cruel and a cigaret fiend, but a lover of flowers. 
Strange that they should grow in the life of a Mexican where 
the tobacco weed takes up so much room. In the iron-fenced 
and roofed market there were varieties of every kind of 
flower that ever grew. In some bouquets, ten feet high in the 
shape of a cross, circle, spray or wreath, there were lilies, 
roses, violets and pansies, flowers red, white, blue and purple, 
a rainbow of color, a perfumed paradise, a profusion that 
made my nose forget all the sad smells it had been assaulted 
with. There were bouquets for church, cemetery, office, home, 
buttonhole and all to be had for little money. The word 
cheap was no name for such flower wealth. In California, 
Honolulu and the Orient I have seen and smelled flowers, but 
neither so many nor fragrant as here. The Indians love 
flowers. They may have little money to offer their patron 
saint but they always bring many sweet flowers to their 



214 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

favorite image. Of old they had a god of flowers and heaped 
them over the beastly ugly face of their war God liuitzil- 
opoehtli. 

Inquiring whether this was the flower season, and where 
they all grew, we learned the season was all the year round, 
that much of what we had seen came from Xochimilco, and 
that no visit to Mexico would be complete without going 
there. We went by tram and en route passed through streets 
that had been recent lines of battle-march, by buildings pep- 
pered with bullets and windows shot out a year ago not yet 
repaired. Geography says Mexico City is situated in a 
valley. The tenderfoot tourist thinks it is situated on the 
brink of a political volcano liable to erupt at any time. Just 
outside of the city we saw ex-battle fields and cross-road 
trenches. Sombreroed, barefooted boatmen, with dark skin, 
hair and eyes boarded our car long before it reached town 
and tried to persuade us to hire them and their boat. 



FLOATING TRUCK GARDENS 



WHEN we stepped into the town plaza we were 
attacked by more boatmen more insistent than Niag- 
ara hackmen or Venetian gondoliers. We passed 
through the little town of Xochimilco, then crossed 
the plaza by an old church, near curious houses and by more 
curious Indians, until, following along a narrow street, we 
ran into something that resembled a swamp on whose edges 
some half-naked, old women and long-haired mud-nymph 
Mexican girls were washing clothes. 

We bargained with a brawny boatman who told the guide 
in fluent Spanish how smoothly his gondola could glide. This 
"gondola" of his was nothing but a flat-bottomed, little mud- 
scow with a sun-shade top. True, there were several old 
gas launches floating around but they looked too risky. It 
might be the old story of the hare and tortoise so we pre- 
ferred the human machine pilot to pole us rather than any 
rusty patent power. 

Stepping in we sat down in the three chairs on the side 
of the boat, while he stood at the stern poling as they do in 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 215 

Holland. The water is shallow and there were tall trees on 
either bank. As we moved under the little bridge, we saw 
the proverbial boy who always hangs around the water. Now 
we drifted by little huts, and saw women washing their hair, 
their clothes or their children, and further along met canoes 
loaded with vegetables grown in the truck gardens. At last 
we knew what "floating" gardens meant. The natives build 
a sort of log-raft and drive piles or plant trees at the corners 
to hold it from floating away. After this they cover the raft 
with dirt and rich soil, plant and raise their flowers and 
vegetables on it. These so-called "floating" gardens, or 
islands, are man-made and so arranged that they look like 
green-squares with liquid streets at right angles. The soil is 
rich and men were fertilizing it by digging in the water 
and bringing up the rich muck from the bottom which they 
spread over the surface. Flowers, poppies, celery, cabbages 
and other vegetables grow up like Jack Bean stalks in a 
night and these industrious Indians always have something 
to sell. The reflection of trees wiggled in the water like 
water-snakes. Here water gives effects that whiskey does in 
Kentucky. As we drifted along our "gondolier" stopped at 
every cantina on the shores trying to induce us to get him 
and ourselves drunk. There were other artistic shadows and 
wrinkles in the water that would delight a Corot. I am 
sorry these poor peons are artisans and not artists. This is 
a vegetable Venice with many carrots and not one Corot. 



VENICE OUT"RANKED" 

ARGrES floated by shaped like giant bread troughs 
and loaded to the edge with wood, hay and vege- 
tables that were being poled to. Mexico City. It is a 
long, hard trip, requiring much time but their pas- 
time is to kill time when not killing each other. Pleasure 
boats with picnic parties from the city, launched by, the 
occupants singing, playing guitars, eating, drinking and 
smoking. This is a kind of rural Coney Island to Mexico 
City. Sunday is the great day when hundreds come and 
rustic restaurants and picturesque dancing pavilions along 




216 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

the banks are filled with those who rest and rust. Pulque 
and beer flow more rapidly than the sluggish current. There 
were tattered banners stretched across the canal at wayside 
inns and outs, advertising special attractions. They were 
symbolic of the tattered and torn condition of the merry- 
makers next day. The only resemblance I found to the 
liquid streets of Venice was the smell. The vegetable growth 
of the gardens, the dirty water and filth stirred up by my 
gay gondolier, a "gloomy Gus," stirred up my feelings with 
an overpowering odor. In this vile vegetable Venice there 
was no Rialto, Delia Salute, Desdcmona's Palace, Campanile 
or Lion of St. j\Iarks. Yet all this is romantic to a rough, 
ragged, Romeo Mexican as he sails around in a mud-scow 
on a moonlit swamp, twanging a guitar and singing love- 
songs to his lousy lady love. The gondolier swears instead 
of sings. Over all there is the fragrant breeze of muck and 
dirty water. Now they are poled by some historic onion 
patch or garden bed to the odor of which is added the strong 
smell of the cigaret. How blissful and poetic is this to a 
Xochimilcan. This is no place of inspiration for a Ruskin's 
"Stones of Venice," a Liszt and Henselt gondola song, 
Neven's Venetian melodies, Shelley, Rogers and Byron verses, 
but only for a health report. 

XOCHIMILCANS 

I HE natives of Xochimileo are amphibious, work in 
mud and water and go from island to island like 
so many water bugs. They are as strange as any 
____ people met in the travels of Ulysses and Gulliver. 
The men are short, stocky, strong, cleanly and have a light 
complexion like the wrapper of a five-cent cigar. The chil- 
dren are rather good looking. The women have a weary look 
and are as expressionless as the walls of their houses. Some 
of the old men look like naked Nestors. They are sad sons 
of Adam. His work curse lines their faces and hardens their 
hands and hearts. Theij- life is one unending truck garden. 
However picturesque and novel it may be to the traveler, it 
is dull and commonplace to them. It is much work and little 
play that makes them dull. Their songs are sad and they 





THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 217 

have a strange philosophy of life. We mourn a death, they 
make merry. We laugh at birth, they cry. They drown their 
sorrow in a Nepenthe of pulque. 



ZAPATISTAS 

T THE END of the liquid road we came to the 
deep, clear spring that supplies Mexico City with 
water. Across the railroad track there is a large 
electric plant, with shot out windows, that pumps 
the water up to a stone building where it in turn is pumped 
out. The whole face of this reservoir wall was pock-marked 
with bullet-holes. There was a guard present, and to the 
mental question why, a bugle note suggested the answer. 
Only a stone's throw away there was a Carranza camp of 
soldiers. To another mental interrogation why, the reply 
was, to protect this water supply from the Zapatistas who 
were but five to fifteen miles distant in the surrounding hills. 
It is one of the favorite little jokes of the bandits to raid 
the reservoir, shoot it up and shut off the water supply. A 
few months before this very thing had been done. At the 
very border of the city limits soldiers are necessary to pro- 
tect this life-giving water. While we were in Mexico City a 
large railroad station was burned down, supposedly by bandit 
sympathizers, or some other band of anti-Carranza people. 
Our Charon brought us back to the little town in safety, and 
as the tram was leaving for Mexico City, Indian girls 
appeared with arms full of flowers for a few cents compared 
with their size and scents. 



FLY AND DIRT EATERS 

TIhE lake-dwellers of Mexico have no snails or maggot 
J cheese, but prepare a toothsome dish of water bug 

eggs or larv£e. We use flies for fishing, they fish 
for flies. The Indians plant bundles of reeds with 
the tops just above the water surface and on these reeds the 
flies come and lay millions of eggs. When they are all 



218 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

incrusted like an old log with, barnacles, the sprouts are 
pulled up and shaken until the egg-like fish roe fall off. They 
are gathered and mashed into a sort of paste, beaten up and 
mixed with hen's eggs and are ready to eat, especially during 
the Lenten season. 

Another delicacy on their bill of fare is the fly itself. A 
good American housewife swats the fly. Here they carefully 
catch him, roll him up in a cornhusk, boil him, let him cool, 
press him into cakes and sell him. In American restaurants 
we often find flies on the menu, in the milk or on the food 
and we fly into a rage, throw out the intruder or order a 
new dish. But they are never brought in as an appe- 
tizer or special course. We have a yearly crusade against 
the fly. If the prices of food continue to soar it may be 
necessary for fly society to have fly parties, to catch flies and 
make them palatable according to Indian chef recipes, 
serving hot or cold according to the preference of the epicure. 

Like Israel, Mexico dines on locusts and wild honey. We 
ate at Grasshopper hill, but not the grasshoppers themselves, 
as the people do in the southern part of the republic. 

The dirty natives who eat dirty food and find mashed 
flies a delicacy should not be too severely censured when they 
fall naturally into the habit of eating dirt itself. They do 
not do this openly and unblushingly, as the clay eaters in 
Florida, but secretly as a man who smokes and drinks on the 
sly the day after his New Year's resolutions to quit. It may 
be for the flavor or because one lacks sand. Apart from the 
proverb, "There is no accounting for tastes," little boys 
eat dirt, grow thin of face and their little stomachs belly 
out like balloons. Boys and girls grow up with this dirty 
diet and die before maturity. Imagine sneaking out into the 
back yard and taking a lunch cheap as dirt, of smuggling 
some of it into the house and placing it under your pillow 
to munch during the night or of carrying it around in your 
pocket by day as if it were a bag of salted peanuts. 




THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 219 

PERNICIOUS PULQUE 

N this Mexican table-land we were served with pulque. 
There are bad eases of pulqueritis but the beverage 
never affected me seriously. This may be because my 
pulque was fresh and taken in small quantities. We 
saw the maguey plant which is raised on thousands of upland 
acres. The natives worship at this pulque shrine. A Shriner is a 
"noble" and the Greek word applied to this maguey plant is 
* ' agava, ' ' meaning noble, though too much pulque makes a man 
ignoble. Its sturdy green leaves are often ten feet long, a foot 
wide and six to eight inches thick. Shortly before the plant ma- 
tures, in a, tall, twenty-five foot stalk, it is covered with 
green, yellow flowers that are its own furnished funeral 
flowers, and it is worthless. When it is living and healthy the 
owner cuts out the heart of the large central stem, leaving 
a nice little well. It is several feet in depth and diameter 
and full of the sap which comes up from beneath, ready to be 
doctored and fermented into the drink that saps the vitality 
of the people. Often the plant produces four to eight quarts 
a day. You do not suck it through a straw at the bar, but 
it is sucked out by an Indian who inserts the small end of a 
gourd into the little well of sap and draws in his breath 
through the other end of the gourd, where a small hole has 
been cut. When the gourd is full he empties it into a sheep- 
skin bag that he carries over his back like the water carriers 
along the Nile. With his mouth to the gourd, and the full- 
bellied sheepskin of pulque on his back, he resembles a 
bagpiper. 

Nature made ''Maguey" sweet but she is soon corrupted in 
these bad lands of Mexico. The "aguamicel," or heavy 
water as it is called, is taken to a little distillery where some 
old and fermented maguey, called "mother of pulque," is 
mixed with it. What you sucked the day before in the field 
you may swill down the next night alone or with your 
friends. The habitual pulque user wants something stronger 
so the mild pulque is distilled into a mad devil drink called 
mescal. This suits the Mexican taste and he tastes but little 
of it before he gets fiercely, fighting drunk. Pulque has 



220 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

inspired a maudlin j\Iexican poet to sing its praise, as Horace 
did the Falernian wine, 

"Know ye not pulque — 
That liquor divine? 
Angels in heaven 
Prefer it to wine." 

To be plain, pulque smells like the swill I used to feed 
the hogs on my uncle's farm when a boy. I saw barrel loads 
of it carried to the city and piles of sheepskins on the market 
walks. The heat and jolt, sour barrels and old skins produce 
a smell that ought to be stopped whether the drink is pro- 
hibited or not. 

Pulque is Mexico's national drink, a white, sour, smelly, 
yeastly juice of the maguey plant. The sign of a pulque 
shop is a long sheet of scissored tissue paper of many colors 
hung over the door. The real signs are the sodden, sleepy 
men who lie on the plazas and walks. Sundays and saint 
days are the time to get full, not of piety but pulque. It is a 
common sight to see cart-loads of holiday merry-makers, 
soused with pulque and beaming with "pulquetudinous" 
smiles. The drink is not unhealthy, is often given children 
but an overdose diseases the body and deadens the mind. 
Pulque is another Carranza prohibition, yet you find it sold 
everywhere. I entered a shop and asked for a drink. The 
keeper filled a mug from a big barrel, told my guide I must 
go outside the shop to drink it. It is right to drink pulque, 
but not in the saloon. 

In different parts of Mexico City dirty, ragged pulque 
drunks lie around the streets until they sober up. There seem 
to be no police to arrest and no place to put them if arrested 
for the jails are already full of political prisoners. 

National drinks of other countries usually look nice and 
smell attractive, but this combination flavor of sour milk and 
stale meat is very unattractive. This may be why the Mexi- 
cans love it, and you couldn't hire them to wear a clothes- 
pin on their noses. It looks like thin wall paper paste, smells 
like swill and tastes like melted yeast cakes. I presume that 
on Popocatepetl, the Mexican Olympus, the gods quaff many 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 221 

bumpers of pulque. The clown town pulque shops are quite 
decent but those on the outskirts are rendezvous for ruffians 
and revolutionists. Some of the pulque shops have striking 
names— ''Mecca of Delight," "Fountain of Angels," "The 
Hang-Out of John the Baptist," "Delight of the Apostle," 
"Heart's Desire," "Seventh Heaven," "The Retreat of the 
Holy Ghost," "A Night of Delight" and "The Retreat of the 
Holy Virgin." The peon without pulque is like the French 
without wine, the German without beer, the Englishman with- 
out ale and the Russian without vodka. 

Perhaps the best thing about pulque is the story of its 
origin, proving that wine and women are the two feet on 
which many a man walks to ruin. A long time ago a Toltee 
sent his pretty daughter to his king with the present of some 
maguey sap. The king said thanks, I like the drink some but 
the girl much more, and he detained her as his prisoner. She 
made no objection, knowing that she could live in better style 
than in her father's hut, with the result that the king became 
the father of her illegitimate son. The king tried to do the 
right thing by her and the boy and afterwards placed him on 
the throne. The Toltecs had been at peace for many years, 
but from this time everything v/as different. They grew 
jealous, fought, were scattered and died of drunkenness and 
disease. It is the same old story, the same old curses of 
woman and drink. Either one will play the very devil of a 
Delilah with any Samson who ever lived. 

The maguey plant vies with henequen in Yucatan. I was 
astonished at the many uses of the cocoanut palm I had seen 
in the South Seas, but the maguey runs it a close rival. It is 
useful, as well as ornamental for a front door plant or a back- 
yard drink. It is related to the cactus family, the leaves 
shingle your house, or may be used as pig troughs, funnels, 
rain gutters and spouts. The fibre makes a rope to hang 
3'our enemies or a hammock to swing in with your sweet- 
heart. The thorny tips are needles, and it is needless to say 
may be used with a thread of the fibre to sew on your 
buttons or put a patch in your pants. The pulp makes paper 
on which you may write to your wife, or someone else's, and 
long ago it was a sort of papyrus or parchment for public 
records, and artistic use. 



222 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

PROHIBITION 



PULQUE prohibition laws do not prohibit any better 
than prohibition liquor laws in the United States. 

The only remedy for pulque and rum in the stom- 
ach is religion in the heart. 

You can no more guide a man by law than you can steer a 
ship by pushing against the mast. 

The best antidote for disease is health. Resist the devil 
of sickness and he will flee from you. 

The way to fight Satan and sin in this world is not by 
trying to shut them out of your life but by having your heart 
strong to fight against the attack. 

The Puritans, in the time of the Stuarts, forcibly opposed 
gaiety and games of every kind, but there was a reaction, the 
devil was exchanged for a witch and her hell brood that 
made the last years of Stuart England worse than the first. 

Character means trial and temptation. 

The free man is not the man who wants to sin and dares 
not, but the man who could do wrong and won't. He is his 
own policeman and prohibition law, his own Sinai law-giver. 

The honest man is not he who finds it advantageous to lie 
but insists on telling the truth although he suffers social, 
political and financial loss. 

The most worthy woman is not the old, homely one who 
lives in the country with no company, but the beautiful one 
who lives in the city with all its lures and remains pure. 

The innocence of ignorance is not the innocence of infor- 
mation, as many a boy or girl has learned who came from the 
little village to the large city. 

One may be moral because he is in jail, sick, worn-out or 
lacks ability and opportunity. 

I\Iuch as the Bible declares it wants a man saved, it says 
he may go to heaven if he will or to hell if he wants to. 

Adam was mushy, vrith no manhood of character, until 
God made him choose for himself between right and wrong. 
He was a free moral agent, just as we are, to do good or 
evil. Better be sincerely wrong than hypocritically right. 

Christ surrounds us with choice of evil and provides ways 
of escape. His prayer was not that His disciples should be 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 223 

taken out of the world but kept from evil in the v^orld. He 
declares His grace is sufficient for us and that we can do all 
things in His strength. 

When it comes to salvation God draws and never drags, He 
woos but does not wallop, 

Jesus said men would not come unto Him that they might 
have eternal life. When men won't, Christ can't. 

Unclean David became pure and drunken Gough became 
temperate, not because of any fence, club or law outside, but 
because God gave them clean hearts inside. 

The world was darkened, diseased, dwarfed and damned 
with all its laws of art, philosophy, poetry and science when 
Christ came to Bethlehem to make men free by heart, not 
hand, and to make them live right and righteously more 
easily and lastingly than any patriot or reformer. 

Jesus found men slaves to Roman law, Jewish ceremony 
and to their own vile passions and told them how to be free. 
He freed them, not by force of sword or code of law, but by 
knowledge of the truth, the truth that they were sinners and 
He was the Saviour. 

The man who abuses liquor, food or passion is a moral 
slave and knows it. The sin of indulgence has control over 
him, his weak will, better judgment and the advice of his 
family and friends. Sin in his heart puts sin in his life. 
Regeneration and not legislation can cure evil, for salvation 
makes safe. , 

Legislation, equal to Gladstone's ideal, which renders 
wrong-doing difficult and right-doing easy, can at best facili- 
tate and not dispose the heart to ways of purity and truth. 

Education may stimulate and enlighten, but will stop short 
of moral and radical transformation as it did with the Gre- 
cian philosophers in their flower-wreathed Academy, 

Music, painting and science can no more furnish moral 
power, adequate to humanity's need, than the armless statue 
of Venus de Milo could rescue a drowning child. 

Reforms may be able to cope with one or more vices, but 
ignoring the duty of free choice and self-government, give 
no evidence of ability to promote the healthful growth of 
other virtues. 



224 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

JAILED 



WE rode on every kind of a street car in Mexico except a 
funeral and penitentiary one. The latter is a small 
bob-tailed trolley, closed and with small barred win- 
dows. A guard with a gun is the conductor for safe 
passage. We went of our own free will to jail, and when there I 
never saw so many people before who wanted to go to jail. 
Women crowded the keeper's office to get passes, not so much to 
go in as to be permitted to pass out. The officer glanced at us 
with an inquisitive and suspicious eye, inquired if we had ever 
been there before, and feeling assured we were innocent and 
harmless, called a guide and permitted us to enter. The pen is ar- 
ranged with radiating corridors from the centre, in which is 
stationed an observatory, a guard and gatling gun that can be 
directed to sweep any disturbing quarter. The building was 
immense and full. Prisoners in the shops were making shoes, 
clothes and bread for themselves and furniture for outside sale. 
Hundreds of men were walking in open courts and several pris- 
oners were in single cells that faced the patio breathing space. 
We passed big gates where men pressed against the bars like 
animals against a cage — wild men with arms and hands 
stretched out begging us to buy some little souvenir they had 
made of carved wood, bone or ivory, into the form of a cross or 
monkey. The gi^ard said we could buy these souvenirs but must 
keep at a good distance, for they steal at long range. 

In one department some new inmates were being shaved, 
having a free hair cut and their faces and figures photoed and 
Bertillonized. Suddenly a man rushed out, looked at me in a 
disturbed way. He Avas furious at someone who had opened a 
door and ruined all his negatives by exposure. ''Not guilty," I 
looked and said. Then a man, big, broad and swarthy, stepped 
up to me and said in perfect English, "Are you a press repre- 
sentative or correspondent?" "No, indeed," I answered, "just 
a visitor." Before he could say any more my guide had led me 
away. All my literary aspirations vanished. The inquirer had 
eyed and asked the question as if I were some criminal editor 
or parjigrapher, who with him had been made an associate of 
the prison press. 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 225 

The pen has a hospital and its convalescents were in the gar- 
dens or under the shade trees, for there were many health and 
beauty spots in this sad place. 

There was one wall to be remembered, for standing against 
it was a tin man, life-size, all battered with bullets. He was a 
target for the guard to practice on, that there might be no waste 
of ammunition on a live man. 

In the women's quarters there was an open patio. Here 
they bathe in a huge oblong stone tank, or sit around chatting, 
sleeping and sewing. Their curious glances suggested more 
fear than love. In the building there was a large sleeping room 
in the corners of which were improvised altars with lighted 
candles, shrines and sacred pictures. Before one of them, a 
poor girl was kneeling and praying for deliverance. One cor- 
ner had been fitted out in palace style with rugs, chairs, bric-a- 
brac and table. Here sat a middle-aged woman, richly dressed, 
and writing. She was a political prisoner and the wife of a 
prominent man. 

In another part of the prison there was a large court filled 
with men and women ail fashionably dressed, who were talking, 
walking and visiting as if they were present at some social 
function. When we left the superintendent gave us a plan of 
the place and grounds, showing the cells and locations, so that if 
we came here to stay we could tell him our preference for an 
east or west front. 

There are some jails in Mexico City where visitors are never 
allowed to enter or leave. We were permitted to do both here, 
and as we passed out we saw scores of people in line waiting to 
bring in luxuries to their imprisoned friends. Returning 
through the town we concluded that the people we saw on the 
streets were more dangerous and desperate looking than most 
of the convicts in jail. It is sad to know that some of the bright- 
est and best citizens of Mexico, on a mere suspicion or jealousy 
in politics, are thrown in jail, while the big mitt men, the big 
thieves who run the government, are free and in public ofQce 
and place. In America you generally vote and talk as you please, 
but here if your ideas are different from the big chief's you are 
told to shut up or you are shut up in jail. 



226 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

"POPO" AND "IZTA" 



POPOCATEPETL is the undisputed giant, the perpetual 
president and monarch of Mexico's mountains. Orizaba 
peak is a little higher bufPopo" looks more venerable. 
Governments come and go, revolutions whirl and cease, 
he remains. From the foot of the mountain to the top of the 
head he is 17,738 feet. This old man was very active in his 
youth but has made no outbreak since 1548. His head is always 
covered with a snow-white wig. Unlike most old men, though 
his nickname means "Smoking Mountain," he does not smoke. 
This may be out of respect for the old mountain woman, Iztac- 
cihuatl, who is taking a siesta near him. Yet he could smoke if 
he wanted to, for he is free, although he is in a mountain chain. 

The Mexican Indian is full of imagination and tells many 
legends of "Popo" and his girl. Many centuries ago this giant 
mountain couple said or did some indiscreet or foolish thing that 
so provoked the deity that he struck them stone dead. "Izta" 
lies stretched out in a white shroud of snow with no get-up to 
her, and old papa "Popo" looks sadly towards her. At first he 
shed lava tears, grew sulphurously mad, quaked and fumed 
with rage so that the Indians called him "God of Storms" and 
the "Hill That Smokes." He has settled down with years and 
become reconciled to fate. He has a belt of pine and oak trees 
around him and some bilious, yellow sulphur spots on his head. 

Personally, I think that originally these two mountains were 
one, that they fought and fell out and became separated so that 
today there is some little distance between them. "Izta" lies 
in a rocky bed with a look of "Please go way and let me 
sleep," as she stretches out her cold, icy feet towards "Popo. " 

Iztaccihuatl is called "La Mujer Blanca," "The White Wom- 
an." Were I writing a treatise on genealogy, I should say she 
was the first white woman on this continent, though she does 
not belong to the Caucasian race or range. There may be 
buried secrets in her flinty heart that furnished some prehistoric 
Wilkie Collins with material for a novel, "The Woman in 
White." When it comes to her form I am not "stuck" on her 
shape. Whoever carved her out was a poor artist sculptor who 
must have drawn on his imagination and not from a real model. 
I am fairly familiar with the feminine form and it was some 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 227 

days before I could get on to "Izta's" curves and angles. Evi- 
dently her creator had cubist ideas. That I might recognize her 
when I saw her, my guide drew a diagram of this mountain 
damsel and poked the atmosphere here and there to outline her 
figure. Her face is very pallid for one who has slept out of 
doors so long, her hair is like silver threads in the rays of the 
golden sun. It was undone and disheveled as if she had just 
washed it and was unable to do anything with it. Her neck is 
long enough for a young giraffe. The rest of her bust is busted. 
Her knees are drawn up a little and her abdomen is too big and 
disproportioned to be beautiful. Yet I must not be too critical. 
Any one would lose shape who slept outdoors on a pile of rocks 
for so long a time. At sunset these great mountain peaks 
changed and my poetic figures too. "Izta" became a big frosted 
cake, "Popo" a pyramid of strawberry ice-cream large enough 
to fill every mouth in Mexico and we feasted our eyes on this 
spread. 

HERMITS AND HARLOTS 

HESE observations were made from San Angel Inn. 
My attention was diverted from this "Woman in 
White" to two scarlet women. These angels are from 
the lower world and make San Angel their haunt. 
Once this Inn was a monastery with a chapel for worship and 
a surrounding garden where the brothers raised fruit. Now it 
is a rendezvous for roues, an aristocratic roadhouse where Cupid 
pranks are played, high prices paid and hell's hilarity prevails. 
The town of San Angel is now in the fallen angel class and 
has the reputation as a resort of gamblers, thieves and murder- 
ers. We saw barracks with their soldiers and women, men drill- 
ing in the streets and many beautiful homes and large estates 
that Carranza had confiscated. This town is the meeting place 
for Zapatistas who roam through its narrow ways. One expects 
this to be a ''hot town" when he looks around at the surround- 
ing plain, a mass of stony lava. It is time San Angel changes 
its name or ceases to be a country-seat of Satan, 

Friar Tuck belongs to a large family. He may have little or 
no salary, but so far from being famished he lives a Falstaff 
life. Here at San Angel I mused on what splendid quarters and 




228 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

gardens the holy hermits once had. What a change from a mon- 
astery to a roadhouse, from hermits to harlots. Yet not so 
strange, for La Soledad, a few miles away, was the same two-in- 
one affair. AVhether the San Angel monastery was a resort for 
fallen angels, when the monks were here, is not recorded for 
public reading, but it is well known that what went by the 
name of El Desierto, or La Soledad, was very far from being a 
desert or very solitary place. Though a Carmelite convent in 
name, it had little of the austere nature of the prophets Elijah 
and Elisha, who visited the Carmel region above the Esdraelon 
plain many centuries ago. 

This convent of Carmel is not far from San Angel. Many 
years ago these dear men of God retired here to get away from 
the sins and luxuries of the city, but they brought the devil of 
evil with them in their own hearts. It was just a pleasure 
ground and no severe retreat. Plere 'mid flowers and fountains 
they fasted on the finest food and sweets which the ladies 
brought them. Maiden meditations left their souls fancy free. 
Friar Gage was not ignorant of their hypocrisy. He gaged and 
sized them up in 1625 and wrote an engaging account, saying, 
"To see those hypocrites whom they look upon as living saints, 
and so think nothing too good for them to cherish them in their 
desert conflicts with Satan. None goes to them but carries 
some sweetmeats, or some other dainty dish to nourish them 
withal; whose prayers they solicit, leaving them great alms of 
money for their masses, and above all offering to a picture in 
their church, called Our Lady of Carmel, treasures of diamonds, 
pearls, golden chains and crowns and gowns of cloth and gold 
and silver. Before this picture did hang in my time twenty 
lamps of silver J the best of them being worth a hundred 
pounds '* 



A COLD RECEPTION 

1 EXICO CITY was not the capital of Mexico until that 
I capital joke of a president, Carranza, came to the city, 
Sunday's election had been carried out and Wednesday 
evening Carranza came to ]\Iexico City. The papers 
said he would arrive early by train from Queretaro, to which 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 229 

city a few months before he had gone by horse, fearing the 
train would be dynamited by his devoted subjects. Hail to the 
chief! By his orders a triumphal entry had been planned. 
Editors were compelled to write complimentary lies about him. 
His beatific, bewhiskered face filled the front page and was 
posted on the walls. 

A great din drove us from dinner, and going out to the 
street we heard whistles and clang of bells that sounded like a 
big New Year's celebration. But it was all done by his com- 
mand and with no joyous free-will. The streets became tribu- 
tary rivers through which the tide of humanity ran to the ocean 
of the big plaza. "We were carried along on the stream of peon 
enthusiasm, from the shouting peon in the plaza to the paean of 
bells in the cathedral towers. Anciently a paean was a song of 
rejoicing to Apollo, the healer of evil — this paean was a mur- 
mur of curiosity to Carranza, the doer of evil. 

The church bells, so long silenced by official order, were 
pulled over on their rusty hinges and found their tongues again. 
They rang like the Dickens, or I should say, like those Dickens 
describes in his "Christmas Carols," I am sure Poe, if alive, 
could have contributed another poetic stanza to his poem of 
**The Bells." They swing, swang, swung, — ring, rang, rung, — 
with a ding, dang, dung! 

Carranza 's great public reception was limited to a few of 
the peon class who received him. The idle and curious were 
mostly attracted by the noise. The upper and the better class 
cut him. Out of 600,000 people in the city there were less than 
three thousand present. They gathered in front of the palace 
gate and the soldiers hewed a pathway through them through 
which Carranza and his courtiers were to come. But they never 
came. "We waited two hours to see and hear him in vain. If he 
entered the palace that night he went in the back way, afraid 
to take the risk of being bombed. The tedium of the delay was 
not only broken by the clanging bells, but by auto loads of 
soldiers who tore in, up, down and through the crowded streets 
at a thirty-mile clip, not caring who were maimed or killed. 
Disgusted, we left the disgusted throng and were satisfied to 
reach the Club without being run over or robbed. 

That night we heard a story of Carranza and his cabinet. 
It was at a banquet, one of his members missed his watch and 



230 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

told Carranza. Carrauza said he knew tlie man who had taken 
it and -would get it. Shortly afterwards he brought it back. 
The grateful owner thanked him and inquired how he man- 
aged it. Carranza replied, "I got it the way he did from you." 
Another day we witnessed another fake demonstration in 
honor of labor. It was all planned to make our newly elected 
ambassador, Henry Fletcher, who was then in the city, believe 
the working men were all busy, happy and prosperous and were 
parading of their own free will. It was some show but a puppet 
one. Carranza pulled the strings and these men were compelled 
to come out and show off. 



THEATRES 

HE capital boasts an immense, beautiful and half-com- 
pleted opera house. It is necessary to get a permit 
from the Public AVorks officer to visit it. The man 
whose office it is to work the public gave us the card. 
We thanked him, crossed the street, climbed over the unplaced, 
uncut stones and entered. There were only two men working 
on what is planned to be the finest theatre in the western hem- 
isphere. We roamed through unfinished promenades and corri- 
dors, rested in the boxes and dress circles for the few rich, and 
noticed there was little accommodation for the many poor. The 
seating capacity was ridiculously small for so great a theatre. 
The nude stone carvings over the main entrance are attractive 
and artistic. Above the stage there is an immense crystal glass 
drop-curtain with a mosaic view of "Popo." It required years 
to make it and is a glass rainbow dream of color, a landscape 
with "Popo" done in colored glass. The uniqueness, originality 
and striking lights and shades are marvelous. This will be well 
worth the price of admission even if the show beauties are poor. 
The stage is a marvel of mechanism. Electricity moves 
heaven to earth and earth to heaven. Hills, valleys and moun- 
tains can be put into position, and torrents of fire or water shot 
up or down as the play or opera demands. The stage itself can 
be instantly lowered or raised with tableaux settings. Electric 
apparatus, colored light screens and the very latest of every- 
thing made in Germany, that would have delighted Wagner for 




THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 231 

hia heaviest dramatic and musical battini?, were all here, but 
they were unused, rusting and covered with inches of dust. A 
brilliant idea to have the curtain, stage and everything else 
ready, but the theatre itself half built. It is feared that unless 
it is completed within a few years nothing will remain but a pile 
of junk, a tragedy, a building of "steal." This is the peculiar 
Mexican way of doing things. It is as if one built a house, had 
the walls papered and the cut glass and painted china placed on 
the sideboard before he put the roof on the house. The new 
Congress Building is in the same unfinished plight, a network 
of rusty steel. It resembled a giant bird cage waiting for future 
political buzzards to make their nests in it and hatch out plans. 
The unfinished opera house, too, looks like a bird cage, but there 
are no song-birds. 

In Mexico City the good people attend the theatre in the 
afternoon and the bad people at night, though we went at night 
not knowing the difference. Gay plumaged birds and soiled 
doves fluttered about or perched in the boxes by the soldiers. It 
was a coarse Spanish comic opera troupe. The cigaret chorus 
girls sang and threw coffin nails to the audience, fluttered their 
fans and danced fancy steps. "What most pleased the crowd 
was the caricature of a priest who flirted with the girls, took 
them away from the soldiers and kept them for his own private 
company. The house shrieked with laughter at the dialogues 
and jokes. My Spanish friend translated them for me. They 
were rank and broad, but would not be permitted in a Broad- 
way house. The curtain was not decorated with artistic scenes 
but with obscene ads for the cure of sex complaints. 



RED LIGHTS 



NIGHT is the time when social graveyards yawn and 
street walking is the leading and misleading industry. 
Former places of show to the tourist, infamously famous 
houses of vice, are now mostly visited by the soldiers. 
In these places are patios, flowers, lights, music, dancing, drink 
and refreshments, as if the owner were giving a party or recep- 
tion. When the officers call the privates get out, and when the 



232 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

soldiers arrive the civilian visitors leave. The madam of one 
manse, an American, was sorry to tell us that Carranza's 
officers had the apartments, and that on account of the hard 
feeling toward the U. S. it wasn't advisable for us to come in or 
even be seen watching them dance. They were liable to whip 
out a gun and shoot at pleasure. The soldiers take over these 
places and repay the entertainment with oaths, brutality and 
bullets. 

These heroes fill the cafes and eantinas and amuse them- 
selves by taking over the house with the inmates and shooting 
out the electric lights. Every noon one can see Don Juan 
officers in Mexico City driving up in their cars to the entrances 
of young girls' schools to watch the pretty seiioritas come out 
and invite them to take a spin, but wise parents are there to 
give their daughters safe escort home. In ]\Iexico some of Car- 
ranza's choicest officers imported a pornographic film from 
Havana which they showed at five pesos a person. 

If this rough house existed in so-called "high-toned" places 
we visited, it is not difficult for the reader to imagine what we 
found elsewhere in tougher joints, those social sewers that drain. 
Mexico's money and morals. It was a relief to come out from 
these sepulchres of souls, charnel houses of living death, and 
breathe the pure air of heaven; to exchange the look of basilisk 
eyes for the calm, pure radiance of the stars ; to bid farewell to 
black-haired, dark-eyed daughters of delight and welcome the 
sober beauty of the night. 

The general moral conditions of the capital are rotten. To 
the soldiers' attack on virtue there has been added a general 
immorality of the people. Even before the days of the revolu- 
tion it was an established custom, and not considered improper, 
for a man with money to pick up a pretty girl on the street or 
in the store, go to her home, be introduced to her family and 
with the smiling consent of her parents and brothers, share her 
room that night. Of course street walkers take their exercise 
at night, but you would be surprised to know of the many 
money-mad husbands here who rent or sell their wives for so 
many days or nights a week. The "good" hotels in Mexico 
City are decidedly "bad," for they take out assignation-house 
licenses. 




THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 233 

The Ten Commandments are little in evidence in the country 
and free love prevails with the fruit of seventy-five per cent of 
illegitimate births. A respectable bachelor is not qualified to 
enter society until several children call him "papa." Few men 
are without a separate establishment for affinities. 



HOTEL HELLS 

OD sets the solitary in families and homes, and the 
devil tries to upset His plans by putting people in fiats 
and hotels. The greatest danger to city life is from 
men and women who live in flats, clubs, apartments 
and hotels as lovers and mistresses instead of being husbands and 
wives, fathers and mothers in their own homes. 

Doctor Johnson said in his day that nothing had been in- 
vented by man which brought "so much happiness as a good 
tavern or inn." He might have added, "so much hell if a bad 
one." Like a virtuous wife, a good hotel is of the Lord and a 
bad one is of the devil. 

The word "hotel" early meant a mansion of a rich or dis- 
tinguished gentleman and later a place, where if there was room, 
and you had the money, and were not infected or disorderly, the 
innkeeper was legally bound to eat, drink, sleep and lodge you. 

At best the hotel is a place that is run for money and not for 
love; where you sometimes get what you pay for; where you 
are just one of many guests, and where you come and go with- 
out love or care of the proprietor. 

A good hotel in a distant country or city is a place that 
offers shelter, rest, light, warmth, food, cleanly comfort, booka 
and papers, all of which fit you for work and send you home 
decent, morally and physically. 

A bad hotel means more than one with no bath, or with a 
towel small as a mason's apron, soap like a chunk of marble, and 
where a laundry in the hallway and the odor of yesterday's 
dinner permeates the atmosphere. By bad hotel T mean an 
"Inferno" of a place where smoke rooms are filled with vile 
tobacco and viler stories, where there are solicitations to gam- 
bling, temptations to drunkenness and invitations to debauchery. 



234 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

People come from the country to the city to strengthen clubs 
and weaken homes, to furnish flats and freeze out Ihe family. 
Bachelors, instead of marrying and perpetuating the race, a 
duty that no healthy bodied man or woman should shirk, rent 
apartments, associate with dissolute companions and make a 
specialty of violating the Seventh Commandment. 

The low saloon, crooked gambling joint and diseased brothel 
have sent thousands to eternity, but we often find all three of 
them combined under one hotel roof. What awful danger and 
death of procurer and prostitute moving from place to place, 
like pawns on a chess board, killing bodies, minds and souls! 

To police supervision must be added clean home private life 
and plain sense Scriptural preaching so long as hotels, like 
panthers, spring out with strong, sudden leap to maim and mur- 
der the innocent. 

The history of a city's hotels is the history of its moral life. 
The good or bad influences of hotel life are seen in one's greater 
or less love for a quiet home, an honest business and a redeem- 
ing religion. 

Better in life and death to be surrounded by a family than 
fools and flirts; to have a Bible in your hand than a pack of 
dirty cards; to have your lips wet with communion wine than 
the foam of champagne. 

Man was a sensual, slaughtering savage until he had the 
home idea. Holmes has well said, "The world has a million 
roosts for a man but only one nest." To take home out of life 
is to subtract the odor from the rose, the sun from the skj% the 
soul from the body and God from His heaven. 

Many clubs and hotels seek to ruin the home fireside. What 
can you expect from people who sit on the radiator, camp 
around a dark, hot hole in the floor with no cheerful fire or 
human smile of children companionship ? People who claim 
"this is the life" and profess to enjoy mere hotel existence are 
undoubted idiots and qualified for a position in the nearest 
insane asylum. 

The history of the home is the history of civilization. The 
common layman says, after a day of big care ajid little coin as 
he slams the door shut, "World, flesh and devil, do your worst — 
I have a happy home." The sweat of labor's brow is the per- 
fumed oil for the lamp of affection that burns on the sacred 




THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 235 

altar of the home. "There is no place like home" to fill our 
souls with songs of hope and hearts with love of heaven, the 
eternal home of us all. 



DISORGANIZED 

F I remember the name, it was the St. Ines that had the 
reputation for having a new, large, expensive and 
very sweet organ. I wanted to see and hear it. The 
guide knew the father and we visited the church. It 
was noon, there was no service and the organ with mute white 
lips stood in the loft above us. Did the father play ? No ! Did 
I? Yes, a little and would like to try. He kindly consented 
and we climbed aloft. I sat at the keyboard and opened her up, 
slowly and softly at first, until I could get the combination, then 
I broke loose, coupled the keyboards, used the full organ, im- 
provised, played patriotic and war melodies, marches and three 
four-time pieces with heavy pedal to make it sound like Sunday 
music. Some outsiders stepped in and looked up. The few 
straggling worshippers who had entered wondered what all the 
noise was about. The father was agitated at this hoAvling hurri- 
cane of harmony and came to my guide and asked, "Can he not 
play any soft, sacred church music?" Duran gave me the tip. 
Really I didn't want to wreck the organ on the sea of sound, so 
I shut her down, slowed up and brought her into port with 
"Nearer, My God, to Thee," and the Doxology, which satisfied 
the severer musical taste of the good father. 



SUN AND MOON PYRAMIDS 



HAVING been warned that it was not safe to visit the 
ruins of San Juan Teotihuacan because of bandits, we 
decided to go, thinking it was just as safe as to remain 
in town where drunken soldiers fired at pedestrians 
from their autos, with side-line pursuits of rape and robbery. 

It is thirty miles from the capital and when we got off the 
passengers wondered why we should stop at such a miserable 



236 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

place when trains were so few and far between. Teotihuaean 
means "city of the gods." They were evidently off on a vaca- 
tion, for I never saw a more God-forsaken set of people in any 
town. We endeavored to get horses or wagons to ride to the 
pyramids, wiiich are several miles away, but nothing was avail- 
able. Horses were at a premium, for the bandits had stolen 
nearly everything but the railroad tracks which were nailed 
down. There was one horse hauling a wagon, but that was for 
business and not for pleasure. So we started afoot. The dust 
was blown into our faces like powder through a funnel, as we 
walked through the narrow, dry streets. On we trudged by 
pulque plants, broken walls, old shack houses, stacks of grain 
and hay with crosses stuck in them for protection, by a ruined 
church with old spires, left some of our clothes behind on a 
barbwire fence, crossed the dry bed of a river and continued 
our hot and hurried trip until we reached the Pyramid of the 
Sun. 

Whether it is of Toltec or Pre-Toltec origin I wave all 
technicalities, since learned doctors so widely disagree and say 
this city was called a holy place and that the pyramids of the 
sun and moon were monumental loadstones, or magnetic moun- 
tains, which drew the people from afar. For the present I was 
one of the people, clambered up the fii-st and second terraces of 
the Sun Pyramid until I was monarch of all I surveyed. Paus- 
ing to sit and rest, I imagined the time when sad-eyed multitudes 
came here and kings were crowned, when priests paraded and 
choirs chanted. It was up these steps that a human victim was 
dragged and sacrificed in a temple on top, his heart cut out and 
his dead body tobogganed do\ni the steps. The guide further 
said that Aztec girls once danced up and down these steps. 
They must have been light-winged or footed like ]\Iercury, for 
the steps are steep and dangerous and the traveler is kept busy 
now in his attempt to get up and down without breaking his neck. 
The Moon Pyramid resembles a grassy hill, as this one did be- 
fore it was cleared of dirt, debris and vines. The Sun Pyramid 
is a grand old pile and reminded me of the Stop Pyramid in 
Egypt. Its base is about the size of Cheops, I h.ad walked round, 
and is 216 feet high. The structure is made of rock and stone 
cemented together and covered over with small pieces of rock 
like thorns on a cactus, rocky pimples or rough ice in a glacier 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 237 

moraine. It was built in terraces and according to tradition a 
temple was erected on its broad, level summit, that contained a 
large block of porphyry as a monument to the sun. Eminent 
authorities, who have delved deep, affirm these pyramids con- 
tain galleries like those of Cheops, and there is one gallery in 
the Pyramid of the Moon that falls in exact lines with the mag- 
netic meridian. A Chinese savant, who was minister to Mexico 
in 1911, discovered an inscription on the Sun Pyramid which 
he said was very common on the burial places of China. I 
confess to ignorance of what it was, but it may have been a 
laundry bill for priests' robes and vests that were spattered 
with the victim's blood when his heart failed and he died. 
Quien sabe? 

The name of the Sun Pyramid is ''Tonatiuh Itzacuatl." 
Sun-worshippers have always existed to a degree, except on 
the part of the late rounder who loves darkness rather than 
light. The sun-lit statue of Minerva was seen on the Acropolis 
by sailors far out to sea. So, on this pyramid there were erected 
great images of the sun and moon, all covered with gold, that 
shone out their welcome and guided the worshipper to this 
shrine. The guide said that at night fires were built on all 
sides of the pyramid, that flambeaux were placed by the rocks 
which projected from the sides, and that a grand illumination 
was made. Always after the victim's painful sacrifice there was 
a big celebration that rivaled Payne's fireworks. 



'ROAD OF THE DEAD" 



THE Pyramid of the Moon was resting under a cloud of 
dust, vegetation and vines. Leading between the Sun 

and Moon Pyramid is the "Road of the Dead," with. 

excavated mounds on either side of it, where anti- 
quarians have found obsidian knives used in sacrifice, small 
clay effigies of buried kings and priests, and human bones. 
Under a shed we discovered some Aztec picture-writings, most 
of which had been covered over by an iron door to protect their 
mutilation or robbery. A guard sat there with only a gun as a 
companion, to shoot any Zapatista bandit who might attempt to 
destroy them. It's sad there was no guard long ago all over 



238 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

Mexico, that Montezuma had no one to prevent that holy horde, 
that bunch of bishop bigots, that mob of mutilators, who smashed 
up the Aztec picture-writings, relics and art. The loss has made 
the whole world inestimably and irreparably the poorer. Z is 
the last letter in the alphabet and stands for the least respected 
Spanish Bishop Zumarraga, who like a boar, roamed and rav- 
aged around the Sun and Moon Pyramids. 

Was this "Road of the Dead" so called from the number of 
deadheads who came down this way to see the games and shows 
pulled off in front of the pj'ramids, or is it from the number of 
clay heads picked up along the way? I don't know. These 
little image faces, large as a quarter or half-dollar, may have 
been of people who came here and had them made when they 
came to sacrificial celebrations, much as country lasses now do 
who come to the circus and have their pictures taken. From 
these clay expressions the impression grows that either the peo- 
ple were a grotesque group, or the artist was a poor workman 
or tried to caricature them. If the clay face is flattering, it is 
sad to think how homely the originals were. Each face is dif- 
ferent and leads to the theory that they are faithful images of 
rulers, kings and priests. Leaving this to airy speculation, I 
feel confident that they were souvenirs, manufactured by the 
Toltec and Aztec Novelty Co., to please the curious crowds that 
journeyed here from all over the surrounding country. 

There may be other reasons for the name of this "R<?ad of 
the Dead." Perchance it was on account of the cruel parade of 
the victims before the main exhibition of the killing on the 
pyramid top; perhaps a "ghost walk," where the souls of the 
dead returned to visit with their friends. Perhaps all this, more 
or less, yet all I am sure of is that I was dead tired and glad to 
visit the museum and rest with the other dead ones. 

It would take me a month to write a chapter on "A Day in 
This IMuseum," and give a truthful account of all I saw. There 
were barrels of bones and skulls, bushels of arrows and spear- 
heads, show-cases of ancient Aztec cutlery — obsidian knives with 
which the priest-doctors performed operations on their victims — 
and mirrors, clay vases, images, pottery and masks of obsidian. 
The Jjidian overseer was so overpowered witli the tip we gave 
him that I could have easily secured the whole collection for-an 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 239 

American museum for a nominal figure if I had been able to 
get it through the customs. 



A SUBTERRANEAN TOWN 

j7^|N THE way to the station we ''dropped in" on a sub- 

I ^/ J terrancan town and called at several houses. No one 
E^^mll ^^^^ ^^ home except the janitor caretaker, who with the 
llfmMiy aid of our flashlight showed us about. The houses 
were like a Herculaneum home or Pompeiian palace. There 
were odd Aztec picture-writings and designs on the walls as 
amusing as wallpaper pictures in a modern nursery. One house 
was the home of a wealthy Aztec. There was room and to spare 
and many spare rooms. Judged by the number of bed and 
bath-rooms, he may have been an early ancestor of Brigham 
Young. We were in the dark, and I am in the dark when I try 
to tell you about it, for it's a dark secret. We speak of the 
"dark ages" but judged by some of the remains of early home 
life, the people were light-hearted, light-handed and light-footed. 

A small toy railroad once ran from the rail station to the 
pyramids for the tourist, but that was in the good old Diaz 
days that are no more. We retraced our dusty steps to the 
station, tired, thirsty and hungry, and while waiting for the 
train bought something. Instead of a glass of milk and a ham 
sandwich, we ate some dirty tortillas smeared with a red-pepper 
paste that started a conflagration in our throat only put out by 
a pint of putrid pulque. The train was on time and we left 
these monuments in the cemetery of the Aztec past. In Egypt 
the pyramids loom up from a level desert — here the mounds and 
pyramids are dwarfed by the mountain ones all around which 
Nature has built. 

It is unnecessary to come way here to find relics and dead 
remains. The main streets of Mexico are built over buried pal- 
aces and temples. In America we dig and strike a sev/er-pipe, 
antiquated hoop-skirt, corset-cover or tomato can, but in the 
street excavations back of the cathedral we saw the ruined 
entrances to old temples. A card of introduction allowed us to 
poke around in this newly dug ruin. Beneath the street, and 



240 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

flanked by modern stores that were selling the latest goods, we 
discovered a temple, wall and entrance guarded by an immense, 
liideous Trilobite. If it was ever alive and tried to bite you it 
would be your finish. 



DIG UP 



DIG is the watchword of the ago and its symbol is shovel 
or pick. Men dig for gold and silver to spend, coal to 
fataittfc' burn and iron to melt; for oil for lights on land and 
^SJ fuel at sea ; for wells of water to drink. America dug 
a Panama ditch to connect the Atlantic and Pacific. Railroads 
dig tunnels through Alps, Andes and Rockies. Antiquarians 
dig up old ruins in Italy, Greece, Egypt and ]\Iexico. The war- 
ring nations of Europe dig trenches for military hiding and 
attack. Good Americans dig up money for Liberty Loan to aid 
Uncle Sam in sending an army and navy to defend liberty and 
democracy at home and abroad. 

As boys we dug for worms to fish, and caves in which to play 
bandit and robber. Today we dig with plow, spade and hoe in 
countr}^ field, schoolyard and home garden. This is the time of 
year when true culture is agriculture. It is patriotic to plant 
potatoes, benevolent to raise beans, worthy to grow wheat and 
Christian to cultivate corn. There is real dignity in digging. 
We should never be ashamed of what poets and prophets have 
praised and the Redeemer referred to in illustrating spiritual 
truth. 

Life is a field where we are to dig, plant, and cultivate physi- 
cal health, mental culture and spiritual graces. Dig up the 
weeds of idleness, avarice, vanity and passion. Don't dig up 
your past failures, but bury them and rise to future success. 
Be repentant Peter and not remorseful Judas. Don't dig up 
the skeletons in your neighbor's family closet, but let the dead 
past of their sin and scandals bury its own dead. Don't be like 
the muck-raker and dig for pennies in the slime and filth when 
all the while an angel from heaven was holding a golden crown 
over his head. 

Remember that at the end of Life's road there is a Hamlet 
grave-digger waiting for us all. So live towards man and God, 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 241 

that although earth's small grave claims your body, heaven's 
many mansions await your soul. 

Scrambling back out of these dark ruins into the light of the 
Twentieth Century, we strolled down the street and entered the 
famous Museum — El Museo National. Here the antique arti- 
cles, reaped in the Mexican archeological field, have been har- 
vested. Mexico is said to be related to or descended from the 
war god "Mexitl" — the short for the long "Huitzilopochtli," 
who has always presided over Mexico's affairs. He looks like a 
bloody beast. He is carved from a solid block of stone and 
stands nine feet in his bare feet. He must have suggested Sher- 
man's "War Is Hell," for to tell the truth he looks like the 
devil. The artist who carved him, instead of indulging in any 
fancy picture of a war-god, like the Mars of the Greeks, made 
him look the fiend he really is — * ' fierce as ten furies and terrible 
as hell." 



A WAR GOD 

WHEN Cortez dropped in to see Montezuma the old man 
showed him the sights and in the absence of a bull or 
a cockfight, they called at the Aztec temple to see the 
god, "Huitz." He was dressed up in his Sunday best, 
wearing his jewels and gold ornaments, and "was outdoing Bel- 
shazzar's feast. He was being regaled with a dishpan full of 
highly spiced human hearts which were being served up hot to 
him. He was no vegetarian but a carnal carnivorean, a ''fee- 
fo-fi-fum" god who loved to smell blood, drink blood, bathe in 
blood and be in a perpetual state of sanguinary souse. The gan- 
grene, jealous-eyed god mocked the meat he fed on and always 
demanded more. His human butcher bill is said to have 
mounted from 20,000 to 60,000 victims a year. However, this 
was only a small bite compared with the millions sacrificed in 
Europe to the heathen I\Ioloch of war by ' ' cultured, ' ' Christian 
civilization. 

No Phidias artist name is carved on this war-god, but Perfidi- 
ous is engraved all over it. No date of make is given yet it 
evidently belongs to the "earn age" period. It is a fact that he 
was discovered buried in the big square here in 1700, dug up 




242 THE DE^^L in Mexico 

and brought out to get a breath of fresh air. So great was the 
fear that the Indians who had heard of him would try and 
become orthodox, make up for heart wanderings and give him 
their hearts as their former relatives had done, that he was put 
under ground again and remained unworshipped until 1821, 
when he was resurrected. Since that time he has lived a quiet, 
abstemious life, satisfying himself with the gaze of the curious 
and listening to uncomplimentary remarks made about him by 
tender-hearted people who call him vile names and place him in 
a new chapter of Heine's ** Exiled Gods." 



A STONE CALENDAR 



TjHE famous Calendar Stone resembles a big millstone. 
I It is about 12 feet in diameter, 3 feet thick and weighs 
26 tons. It must have been an awful package for the 
Aztec postman to deliver New Year's morning, 1479, 
in the year of the great and gory Axayacatl. But he was en- 
couraged and his burden made light by thousands of joyous 
Aztecs who followed and encouraged him to deliver the goods 
with their songs and dancings ending with a feast. This pretty 
little 26-ton calendar hangs on the museum wall. It was quar- 
ried from a single piece of basalt or porphyry from Coyoacan. 
This remarkable stone bears the inscription remark showing it 
was quarried and brought to the Aztec capital more than four 
hundred years ago. It was formerly cemented in the wall of 
the cathedral, where it grew dizzy recording all the saints and 
feast days, and to spare its days from confusion it was toted to 
the museum sanitarium. 

"Writers like Humboldt and Prescott have shown that the Tol- 
tecs and Aztecs were somewhat civilized in some ways, knew how 
to celebrate many things, and among them time. From the 
hieroglyphs on the face of this stone the wise men of the East 
read lines of a perpetual calendar, a kind of farmer's universal 
almanac witli wliich to calculate early sunrise, late sunset, sol- 
stices, cycles, and when it was time to milk or drive the cows to 
pasture. Others say it merely records feast days and some 
important dates up to the time it was made. 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 243 

The centre of the stone is the face of a man, a sun. Round 
him radiate other faces representing the months and days of 
the Aztec year. This year is supposed to have been "divided 
into eighteen months of twenty days each, with five compli- 
mentary days added so as to make three hundred and sixty-five • 
and once in fifty years they are said to have allowed for the loss 
of minutes in their reckonings." If one might judge by this 
26-ton stone, time surely hung heavy on the Aztec hands. What 
a long wait (weight) between eats and drinks — between the 
nights when a fellow was to call on his best girl and then calcu- 
late the proper length of his visit before her father spoiled his 
good time and with his bare foot gave him a rapid transit home. 
Bankers, bookkeepers, strolling plaj^ers and priests who had 
dates to make must surely have had a fine time keeping their 
appointments by this circular calendar stone. It was one joyous 
round of pleasure. Perhaps Professors Digemup and Bunkum 
unearthed some such stone ad: ''Mrs. Mezachualcayatl will 
give a pulque party and dance at her house during the summer 
solstice of fourteen cycles of the full moon. Please leave obsid- 
ian razors at home." 



PICTURE-WRITING 

HE Aztecs did better without an alphabet than some 
high-school graduates do with it. They gave facts in 
history, made maps of places, wrote in colored pictures 
and recorded other things by pictures on stone, and 
parchment made of deer-skin or the maguey plant. Some things, 
just enough for a clue, survive the destruction of the bigoted 
Spanish bishop Zumarraga who wanted to destroy everything 
that did not bear the sign of the cross. 

The Aztec priests used pictures as an alphabet with which 
to record legends, feasts, historic events and calendar years. 
In picture form warriors fight with club and spear, women 
weave and spin, men paddle in canoes, the Moon goddess appears 
with shell and the Fire-god hurls his spear. Their attempt at 
phonetic writing was obscure, but much clearer than the ex- 
planation of it given by modern writers. 





244 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

A BUTCHER BLOCK 

TIE sacrificial stone exhibited here once graced and dis- 
graced the Aztec temple whose pyramidal top it 
crowned. Like the war god, before whom it was placed, 
it was made of quarried porphyry, a solid block three 
feet high and nine feet in diameter. On its sides and top I saw 
hundreds of curiously carved characters and kings, with no char- 
acter, all easily understood as the Sphynx. I do know that it 
was a sort of dissecting table or butcher's block where annually 
as many as 60,000 were cut open. The trouble with this primi- 
tive, sacrificial stone-table was that, like many other operating 
tables, ancient and modern, no one got off alive. I placed my 
warm hand in the hollow, skull-shaped centre of the block and 
drew it along the little, connecting, scooped-out gutter through 
which torrents and rivers of blood had run. It gave me the 
shivers to think of the cold deliberation of the priest, the cry and 
hot blood of the victim spurting and splashing his red libation 
to the war god whose grin, like the grave, cried "]\Iore, more!" 
It is said that at the temple's formal opening and dedication in 
1510, 12,000 were sacrificed on this stone. 



CRUELTY AND CANNIBALISM 

HE spotlight of history, when thrown on the ancient 
Aztec civilization, shows that some recent war bar- 
barities of Christian nations may have been suggested 

by Aztec methods. Turk and Prussian have shown 

fine specimens of bloody brutality. If they want any more, if 
their originality has run out and the devil refuses to furnish 
them further hints, they will be sure to find many pleasant inno- 
vations and new methods in the war calendar of the Aztec civili- 
zation. When the price of vegetables, beef and game was too 
high for sacrificial purposes, the priest could always fall back 
on human life, which was always very cheap. Religious doctors 
prescribed at certain seasons starvation by fasting, and blood-let- 
ting by slicking thorns in the patient's legs and pushing a sharp 
stick through the sufferer's tongue as if it were a skewer in beef. 




THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 245 

This dreadful devotion is like that of the fakirs one sees in 
Benares, India. The Aztec rain god Tlaloc was a fastidious 
epicure. Children were carried on litters v^ith faces daubed 
with paint and arms gaudily dressed with paper wings. They 
were sacrified on the mountain or in a whirlpool, while the priest 
fluted a funeral march and friends and patients kept time with 
beating hearts. Then there was a species of skin-game, maniac 
god who was only delighted at a heartless sacrifice. After the 
victims had been caught and their hearts cut out, the dead 
bodies were skinned, the young men dressed up in the skins and 
made the carnival party merry by dancing an Aztec can-can or 
engaging in sham fights. 

At their cycle festival they believed the world would end. 
Then the priest in god-like robes used the victims like a hearth — 
working a wooden drill on his chest until flame was produced. 
When he had warmed up to his work he tore out the sufferer's 
heart and threw the dead body on the bonfire the recent flame 
had kindled. This was the signal for the people on the house 
tops to sing and shout with joy, and not only pierce the air with 
cries, but take sharp stone points and pierce their ears to get 
drops of blood which they offered as thank offerings. 

The biggest festival blowout was in honor of the god Tezcat- 
lipoco, the soul of the world. This creator's sole object at tim.es 
was to take back the souls he had given. He was an Apollo for 
youth and beauty and demanded the best sacrifice the Aztec 
market afforded. The victim was discarded if he was not abso- 
lutely perfect without scratch or pimple. He was selected a 
year in advance that he might perfectly represent this deity. 
He was trained and tutored and his body exercised, massaged 
and perfumed like a dandy. He had the most expensive tailor 
suits and wore feathers and flowers, a crown on his head and a 
bouquet in his buttonhole. He was fed and feted, traveled 
around, was followed by a royal retinue, and when he sang, 
"This is the life," or whistled the latest popular tune, the people 
bowed and scraped before him as if he were a god. He had a 
prodigal son of a time until within a month of the time when his 
real troubles began. Four girls, ''Turkish delights," were se- 
lected to be his company day and night, and with these goddesses 
he ate, drank, was merry, was invited out, wined and dined by 
all the leading members of society as if he were a celestial hero. 



246 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

Then the handwriting appeared on the wall. He said 
"adios" to his fair harem of four, exchanged his Sunday suit 
for his funeral clothes, and was given a free ferry ride across 
the lake to the temple outside the city. His wives and servants 
followed him to the temple to see his finish. Climbing up the 
steps, he threw away his garments and smashed the clay flutes 
he had been playing on to while away the happy hours. Re- 
signed at last to the feeling of "vanity of vanities," he reaches 
the summit of the temple where a half dozen priests — dressed 
like circus clowns or hokus-pokus, long-haired astrologers in 
dark go^\Tis figured over Avith hieroglyphic scrolls — grabbed 
him, saying, "It's twenty-three for you." They hustle him to 
the sacrificial stone, five priests lay hold of his head, arms and 
legs and stretch and hold him on the stone while the sixth priest, 
togged out in festive red, to indicate his bloody business, rips 
open the breast of the victim with an obsidian razor with as 
much ease and skill as if he were a negro at a Mississippi levee 
dance. Thrusting his hand into the wound, he jerks out the 
bleeding, palpitating heart, holds it up to show he has done a 
good job, then throws it at the feet of the temple war god while 
the crowds below bow and kneel in worship. His friends wait 
to catch the body as it bounces dovm the steps, to take it home 
to be cooked as a delicious ragout at the cannibal feast of vic- 
tory, along with side dishes and drink. His head, which had 
already been cut off and placed on a pole, is carried to a skull- 
place where thousands of other skulls were impaled on cross- 
sticks. 

All this time fires were burning on the altars and the horrid 
tom-tom of the snake-skin drums was heard for miles. As his 
friends picked his bones at the cannibal feast and smacked their 
lips over some choice morsel, they reflected on the vanity of 
human wishes, and had food for thought that wealth, health and 
pleasure are short-lived, a delusion and a snare that leave back, 
head and heartache for promised joy. Ladies and gentlemen 
were present. What a dainty feast! What merriment, flow of 
wine and wit of soul ! What hard jokes were cracked and rapier 
thrust sallies were given and met ! I wonder whether a society 
reporter was present and gave a write-up of this in the morning 
paper as an appetizer for breakfast, or if a Boswell wrote an 
edifying editorial on the moral mot or striking philosophy of 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 247 

the victim's friends who followed him to the last and cherished 
every bit of him. 

These festival pro£rrams were varied. To break the monot- 
ony of bloody sacrifice the victim was tortured before his heart 
was cut out, or smashed between two stones, or dressed up fan- 
tastically and compelled to dance. All this fanaticism was in 
the name of religion. The war god demanded victims, so the 
Aztecs went out to fight, not for gold, revenge or territory, but 
to bring men home alive and offer them for sacrifice, to feed the 
hunger and satisfy the thirst of the insatiate "Huitz." Re- 
ligion has dug the fiercest and deepest hells. When the Span- 
iards came to Mexico they opposed this barbarity, smashed the 
temples and idols, said the Aztecs were devils as they tortured 
them, idolaters as they took their idols away and substituted 
those of the saints, and for the Aztec bloody, brutal sacrifice 
instituted the fires of the gentle Inquisition. 



AZTEC LAWS AND GODS 



I 



N AMERICA we are maudlin over murderers, say a thief 
is one because of his environment, put the criminal in 
a palace instead of a prison, apologize for putting him 
there and proceed to coddle him and send flowers. 
With the Aztecs it was different. They had a criminal code 
that makes interesting reading. If a fellow was caught stealing 
you could make him your slave. To steal twenty ears of corn 
or a tobacco pouch was death. If one was caught stealing in the 
market he was clubbed to death. To steal gold or silver was to 
insult Xipe, the special deity of the silversmith, and the thief 
was skinned alive and sacrificed to the deity. Booze was allowed 
the old folks for a nerve tonic and invalids could ''pulque" up 
on a doctor's prescription, but young folks with cabaret ten- 
dencies, if found drunk on the street, were severely reprimanded, 
the man being clubbed to death and the woman stoned. 
The man who slandered was sent to the barber shop to 
have a free, pine-torch scalp singe. To jump a neighbor's lot 
claim, to elope with his wife, or to be a grafter or defaulter, was 
punished by having the offender's cunning head smashed be- 
tween stones or his wicked heart cut out. 



248 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

If such laws were enacted and enforced in modern Mexico 
for one day it would depopulate the whole country sooner than 
plague or war. What would the poor Mexican do without his 
pleasure and profession of graft, thieving and adultery? 

The Museum offers a large variety of hideous gods for in- 
spection. The Aztecs had thousands of gods and possibly among 
them, the "unknown god," to whom the Athenians erected an 
altar. They had an assortment of gods large enough to supply 
the religious trade of several planets. "Shining Mirror" was 
the greatest god and even now he is the leading deity of many 
dandies and damsels whose creed is to seem and not to be, and 
who worship themselves in the looking-glass. Thousands of 
their gods were put out of commission by that iconoclast Zumar- 
raga. What the Latins called "penates," the Aztecs called 
Tepitoton. Each man of noble family was entitled to keep and 
entertain six gods at a time in his home. There were gods who 
were the patron deities of men who worshipped gold and silver, 
who were drunkards or pleasure-seekers. Tlazolteotl was the 
goddess of pleasure and worshipped by prostitutes. Tezcatzon- 
catl was the god of strong drink for drunkards. Xipe was the 
patron of gold and silversmiths. Today these same gods are 
worshipped all over the world under different names. 

In an obscure part of the Museum I found phallic stone 
images, such as I saw in Java and India, suggesting their pecu- 
liar sex worship. The supreme gods of all the gods was Teotl. 
and on the various floors of the Museum there were classified 
specimens of clay and stone images, cloths, grains, etc., peculiar 
to ]\rexico. 

William Niven, an archeolngist, who has a curio store in 
^lexico, gave me much valuable information about curios. He 
invited me to go with him on his week-end hike to dig up basket 
loads of gods, but I thanked him and said one was hard enough 
to follow without having any more. There were thousands of 
interesting curios and images in his store. It is the next most 
interesting place to the IMuseura and he has sent many collec- 
tions to America. He showed me a large, life-size, movable, 
jointed image of the Saviour. It had come from some old 'Mex- 
ican church and its arms could be jerked up and down at the 
will of the priest, or the head made to nod a j'es, or turned to 
say no, just like a mechanical doll. This image was worked for 




THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 249 

the edification of the superstitious Indian. It was an ingenious 
automaton, a Christ clown, and as horrible to me as any of the 
heathen idols round about. I wondered what the stone gods 
thought as they looked at it. This Christ image wore a reddish 
wig, a dark purple silk robe, its hands were covered with red 
paint blood, there was a ghastly gash on the face and the paint 
blood bespattered the forehead. 



CROCODILE TEARS 

L ARBOR DE LA NOCHE TRISTE is the tree of 
the mournful night, a cypress in the capital marking 
the place where Cortez is said to have wept. I doubt 
^1 if the hard-hearted Cortez could weep, though there 
is no doubt that he made millions of other eyes weep. We rode 
out through the suburbs to a little town called Popotla. It has 
a plaza and church and this venerable cypress tree stands within 
an iron railing. Cortez and his Spanish, robber, assassin band 
had been driven out from Mexico City by the enraged Aztecs, 
who fiercely pursued and fought them. Believing he and his 
forces might be captured, tortured or killed, or that his nicely laid 
plans to pocket the Montezuma capital, wealth aand citizens, 
might fail, he sat under this tree more despondent than Elijah 
under the juniper tree when Jezebel was chasing him. C for 
Cortez and C for crocodile tears which he wept, and C for 
Christ whom Cortez corrupted into his own cupidity. This 
"sad night" was almost "good-night" for the Spaniards. It 
was too bad that Cortez was not utterly defeated at this time 
instead of being merely driven out, for within a year he rein- 
forced his forces, returned and recovered everything he had 
lost. The tree is sixty feet in girth and its appearance is old 
and rugged and looks as if it had been a special target for many 
a storm and bolt. Tradition says he leaned against it — perhaps 
this is what disfigured it. This tree is an eyesore to the Mexi- 
can Indians, who hate everything connected with Cortez' name. 
Accordingly you find no public statues or pictures to his mem- 
ory. They have even tried to efface his memory by cutting 
down or burning this tree, so a big iron fence has been placed 
around it with iron pickets to guard it. 



250 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

The little chapel near the tree is a squatty, toad-like thing 
and was built in memory of this Dies Ira, or Night of Wrath, 
July 1, 1520. 

Near the little town, Popotla, with a little name, is the little 
town with a long name, Atzcapotzalco, where there was a slave 
market in Aztec times — not a white slave but a brown slave 
market — where pretty Aztec girls were publicly sold. They were 
arrayed in their finest clothes and made to laugh, dance, sing and 
do every bewitching thing that could bring the gold out of the 
prospective buyer's pocket. This was done publicly then as the 
sale of black slaves was in our South. We practice white slavery 
privately now, and men became so ungallant that the Mann 
act stepped in and said, "Nix on this, j'-ou brace up and be a 
maji. If you will be good, woman will be pure. ' ' 



GOOD AMERICANS 

F YOU want to get over the ground and see Mexico 
City, arrange with my auto Masonic friend, Mr. Moore, 
whose stand is at the Alameda. He can give you an 
auto and show you everything you ought to see. The 
evening spent in his beautiful home with flowers, music and the 
ladies, was one of the delightful things we remember. 

If you are sick go to Dr. I\Ionday. We took dinner at the 
American Club Friday with Dr. Monday, who is no blue Mon- 
day, but a busy, red-corpuscled man every day in the week. 
He can tell you more of real and recent Mexico in an hour than 
I could write in a month. 



ART AND ARTISAN 




MEXICO'S art gallery contains pictures of various Euro- 
pean schools, but the most interesting exhibit is her 
own school, not the copies of saints and ^ladonnas, 
but of original scenes of ]\Iexico's places and peoples. 
The most notable picture to me is by the young Mexican artist, 
Felix Parra, entitled, ''Las Casas Protecting the Indians." It 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 251 

shows the bishop's love and the Spaniard's hate of the poor 
Aztec portrayed in strong line and color. The figures murder- 
ously move and piteously moan. It shows how, in the absence 
of his master Cortez, Alvarado, who not only had the name but 
the spirit of Alva in him, ruthlessly murdered Mexican nobles, 
wives and children. 

The Art School exists in name only, yet we found two or 
three men and women working in clay. The teacher regretfully 
said revolution had dealt art a fatal blow. The only art now is 
the art of war, and people care only to destroy and not create. 

The Jesuit church is a safe place to enter now and we went 
in and heard the hum of Singer sewing machines instead of a 
choir. Instead of kneeling the girls were making suits for Car- 
ranza soldiers. In the pulpit there was a dummy soldier life- 
size. This is not the only dummy 1 ever saw in a pulpit. 

The Jockey Club is a striking corner building built of glazed 
tiles, to deny the Mexican proverb, "You'll never build a house 
of tiles." It was here that wealth and beauty were wont to 
meet and "'jockey" on many things. Gone is the beauty. The 
lovely court is a chicken-roost. The entire tile building now 
looks like a tile bathroom after a plumber has been in it for two 
days. Some of the rooms were being used as political head- 
quarters for the distribution of election folders. Its jockey race 
is run. 



BEGGARS 



MEXICO CITY once boasted a pawn shop, not a small, 
three-ball Uncle Levi affair, but a national one known 
and famous as ' ' Monte de Piedad. ' ' Today it is no more 
and has gone bankrupt. Here the poor but proud 
descendants of the rich, who had spent their money, were able 
to hock their valuables, jewelry, curios and furniture and get 
some money at a low interest rate. If they failed to make good 
and redeemed the pawns the article was later sold at public 
auction. The place was located on the former site of the Cortez 
palace. The private pawn shops one finds now are little better 
than "fences" for pickpocket and thieves' plunder. 



252 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

Beggars in Mexico City are many and varied and are in a 
society class by themselves. The Mexican beggar is a close rival 
to any I have ever seen in Jerusalem, Benares, Constantinople, 
Cairo, Naples and Seville. He and his are an institution. One 
day I started out to give, and long before I went from the 
American Club to the railway station I had emptied my pocket- 
ful of change. It was like pouring money into a rat hole. Of 
course, there are many beggars in other cities, but not so many, 
dirty, persistent or organized as found here. 

Beggars are the living, walking debris of the streets. There 
are beggars totally blind or with one eye ; beggars maimed, 
armless, noseless and legless; beggars humble and bold; beg- 
gars whining and servile ; beggars plastered with dust and dec- 
orated with shreds and patches of clothes. Dirt is no name for 
their filthiness. They have an hydrophobia dread of water. A 
well-dressed and intelligent ]\rexican told me when I was 
troubled with a cold that I must never touch water, not even to 
wash my face. Their hair is heavy, tangled and thick with dirt 
and is the home of vermin. Their faces and hands are scabbed 
with disease and they possess a combination of smells they have 
carefully gathered and retained all their life. 

Taking the advice given the twelve disciples, "When you go 
out from that city, shake off the very dust from your feet for 
a testimony against them," we departed from Mexico City and 
took the train at the station for Puebla. 



A GOLD TRAIN 

T was 2 P. j\I. and we were delayed to begin with by 
waiting for a shipment of gold. Express companies 
on this line are unwilling to be responsible for its safe 
transit and delivery, so some mozos came to our first- 
class car with the bags of gold on their shoulders and handed it 
through the window to some men who wore traveling with and 
guarding it. They hid it under the seats, threw their coats over it 
and pulled out their guns, ready to protect it. There had been 
no disturbance on this line for months and I hoped no spy was 
around to see this deposit and then hurry away and wire a tip 
to his bandit brothers along the road to hold up the train. This 




THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 253 

treasure mine was under a seat opposite mine. In the event of 
any attack through the window or aisles I wondered how many 
bullets would enter ray anatomy. Still, there was no choice. All 
the other seats were taken. 

As we left the depot I said farewell to Mexico City, then to 
idolatrous Guadalupe. Once again we saw the maguey fields, 
glanced at our old Sun and Moon Pyramid friends, got a glimpse 
at the peons who were listening to bands, and arrived at last at 
the small railway town of Apizaco. Here we waited four hours 
for the train from Orizaba to Mexico City to allow passengers to 
change for Puebla. Our train could have taken us to Puebla and 
return in that time, but it would not, neither to accommodate 
nor to relieve the anxiety of the guard with the gold, who wired 
repeatedly for the despatcher's permission to send the train out. 
We became philosophical for one never knows in Mexico when he 
will get anywhere, except possibly in the ditch. 

It wasn't pleasant to sit in a chair-car, lit by two dim lan- 
terns, with so much bright gold, knowing a bold bandit band 
could get away with it by merely reaching in the window or 
walking through the car. It grew chilly and we went out to 
walk around and get warm by eating chile con carne sandwiches, 
sardines, pan dulce, white bread and large fancy-shaped cakes. 
It was all native baked though ornamented with German designs 
made of sugar. Outside there were wrecks of engines and trains 
piled up in the station-yard. For the last six months the ban- 
dits had been dynamiting trains from here to Vera Cruz. The 
station and railroad shop walls were bullet-marked and the win- 
dows were shot out. We heard some loud gun reports, saw some 
fire flashes, but learned it was innocent sport. The natives were 
quietly celebrating a special day. 

Apizaco is a great cane and curio town. The natives make 
walking sticks that you can purchase anywhere from 5 cents to 
$5. Many of the canes are decorated like Totem poles and 
marked with the Mexican colors of green, white and red. We 
bought canes bearing the designs of snakes, birds, trees and Aztec 
Indians. The train our train was waiting for finally arrived, but 
not until we had sent an engine to bring it in. The engines are 
neglected and poorly run. A good American engineer is thrown 
out to make place for a bad Mexican. Mexico for the Mexicans 
is the motto. No American mechanic need apply, no matter how 



254 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

badly needed. Our car was instantly packed to stumbling and 
suffocation with passengers and their bags. We sang a soft Te 
Deum when Puebla was reached an hour later. 

While we were on the train a card was given us recommend- 
ing a certain hotel, but the train was so late that when we did 
arrive there was no hackman for tliat hotel or any other. This 
was the second time we had arrived in a large city, Puebla being 
the third largest in ]\[exico, without bus accommodation. After 
we had stood half an hour on the curb a man appeared and we 
gave him the name of our hotel. He shook his head, stopped a 
hack that providentially came around a corner, pushed us in and 
took us to his hotel. The Terminus, which was not the one we 
had asked for. But we were glad to get anything and when we 
arrived at the Terminus, which seemed interminably far away, 
we pulled up on a side street, went in, were registered, climbed 
the stone stairs, wore assigned a spacious, private room by the 
patio and soon journeyed into dreamland. 



ANGEL ARCHITECTS 



WE waked late Sunday morning because no church bells 
rang, and that seemed strange since Puebla is a city 
of churches. The cathedral is the next in size, import- 
ance and beauty to the one in IMexico City. In this 
"City of the Angels," we walked to see it in the public square. 
It is a mammoth affair. It seems the angels were accustomed 
to make this town a sort of resort and came so often for business 
and plea-sure that it was called "Angel Town," "Puebla de los 
Angeles." 

The records of angel visits between Eden and Puebla are 
few and far between. They liked the climate, and since the city 
is 7,150 feet above sea level, it was a short run and aviation 
down to earth. There is no doubt about this for the cathedral 
is where the angels held their last convention on earth. The 
faithful believer points out the very place where these heavenly 
birds of paradise flew down and helped tlie workmen lift the big 
stones and put them in position. When the towei-s were half 
finished and the workmen were very tired, the angels came aud 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 255 

finished the job, doing as much at night as the men had during 
all the day. 

The cathedral was begun in 1552 and finished in 1649. This 
seems a long time^ — perhaps this heavenly building was a con- 
tract job and the angels only worked on it eight hours a day. I 
took several good photos of this earthly saint's rest, the first one 
I ever saw built by angels, and I confess it is a pretty good job. 

Entering the high iron gate I noticed several angel statues 
roosting on every big iron post, and there were angel heads be- 
tween on the fence pickets. All were on duty. While they were 
very many and artistic my attention was centered on some pretty 
well dressed human angels flitting in and out of the church door. 
There were many bells above and more belles beneath. I ad- 
mired the angelic towers, this labor of love, but was surprised 
that these heavenly messengers sent in a big bill, a bill higher 
than the towers, for there is an inscription that tells the igno- 
rant wayfarer that the towers cost $100,000 — but towers are 
expensive things when angels build them. 

The back of the church was fine enough for the front and 
the front was worth looking back at all the time. As a child 
takes a rubber stamp and daubs a whole sheet of paper with the 
design, so this cathedral is all covered with designs of marble 
statues, saints, crosses, medallions and cherubim. In front of 
the cathedral there is a place where the Zapatistas made havoc, 
rebels were shot, and the church confessionals and furniture 
were burned. 

Within, the Puebla onyx has been worked into many alt-ars 
and statutes, but there is much wood imitation of marble, fake 
finery and stage stuff. The church was once a mine of fabulous 
wealth. The government needed the money and its officials ,vere 
playing hide and seek 'mid the columns of the cathedral, to learn 
where the treasures were hidden by the priests. 

We attended two services, one for the Indians in the morn- 
ing and the other for the rich at noon. At noon it was more 
attractive outside in the plaza where trees, flowers and a band 
drew a larger crowd. Friends and families were out for a walk, 
nurses were there with baby carriages, there were newsies and 
bootblacks, cold ices and drinks. The plaza park was God's tem- 
ple cathedral where you could sit undisturbed except for the 
beggars whose sing-song whine was a regular "Beggars' Opera." 



256 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

PAY AND PRAY 



FIFTY years ago things were different. Now no priests 
are permitted on tlie streets; then there was little else, 
for the P in Puebla stood for priestcraft. Now most 
of the city churches have been closed by the govern- 
ment, then they were open for business, but the town was not 
wide awake in other business, for religion was the main busines.s. 
The entire city was a great belfry with clang ajid clash, and 
there was one unending procession of robed priests and their 
retinue of robbing beggars. Service was servile. There were so 
many churches, chapels, statues, crosses and bell calls that if 
you were sincerelj'' devout in the holy city, from the time you 
left home and went to work or returned, you were in a state of 
perpetual motion, bowing, crossing yourself, kneeling and taking 
off your hat. From descriptions of eye-witnesses it must have 
been w^orse and more of it than all I saw in IMoscow. The clergy 
made a big cleanup of the money and not of the immorality. 
Bullfights were held for church benefits and the matador's 
sword spilled the blood of bulls in honor of the feast of "The 
Sacred blood of Jesus." It is estimated they once had $144,- 
000,000 in property yielding an annual income of $12,000,000. 
The inscription I.N.RI. over the cross really meant, "Pay or 
pray." The cross was the badge of sacrifice for the laity but not 
for the clergy. Both rich and poor gave up luxuries and neces- 
sities. All the gold was for God, convents, monasteries and 
churches. There was thought or room for little else. Priestcraft 
was priest craftiness. 

The city has outgro^vn this and is hustling for "the life that 
is" instead of so much for the life that is to come. Once the 
high church dignitaries were so anxious to make and keep Puebla 
separate from the ungodly, commercial Avorld that they blocked 
legislation, ajid the appropriation intended to permit the main 
line of railway to pass through the town. 

Although clericalism was curbed by Juarez it returned. 
When Carranza saw that according to the old ]\Iexican consti- 
tution it was an outlaw and not entitled to church property, he 
drove the clerics out again and took over the church property'. 
I learned that the present governor of Puebla was becoming leni- 
ent, and to placate some of his personal friends, was relaxing 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 257 

Carranza's vigilance and permitting the church the liberty that 
had always meant popular slavery. 

As we were passing through the streets on the cars we found 
scores of buildings with images of saints stuck over the door- 
waj^s, and small shrines, directing the passersby to turn their at- 
tention from the poverty of their homes on earth to the wealth 
df the church on earth and in heaven. The churches are as nu- 
merous as lemonade stands around a circus tent. I thought I 
was intoxicated with the high altitude, there were so many. 
Before Carranza became president Puebla had 200 churches 
open to the public. 

But churchly love's labor is lost. The name ''Puebla of the 
Angels" has fallen into disuse and is simply plain Puebla. The 
city is not so much now for religion as a railroad centre and 
place where straw hats, pottery, leather, soap, paper, glass, cot- 
ton, woollen goods and iron hardware are manufactured. There 
are some large foundries. 



PUEBLA 



ON 1900 Puebla 's population was 93,522. It was founded 
in 1530. General Scott captured it in 1847 and the 
m^^ French in 1863. The streets are broad, straight and 
mJ^M g^^ right angles. There are many striking builds, such 
as the library, museum of antiquities, hospital, art gallery, medi- 
cal and theological school. 

The aristocratic society church, where weddings and func- 
tions for the rich were formerly celebrated, was closed air-tight 
and a big iron fence with locked gates forbade our entrance. 
Next door there is a mammoth ex-religious building with walls, 
halls, corridors, courts and patios, now a modern school with 
laboratories, library, gymnasium and all that makes up an up-to- 
date university. We wandered around an hour with more delight 
than we had experienced in all the churches, for this place 
meant illumination and care of the body. With this comes 
religious privilege, without it, spiritual slavery. This was a 
real conversion, an ecclesiastic heap changed into a public edu- 
cational institution. One such building is more for man's three- 
fold nature than one hundred churches. One true scientific edu- 



258 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

cator is of more value than a thousand superstitious teacliers of 
any religion. 

It requires more than architecture, paintings and music to 
make men pious and patriotic. Robbery, barbarity, ignorance, 
superstition and the Inquisition have had their day. Hugo says, 
* ' The tiara is fading away, the gag is breaking between the teeth 
of the human race. The patient human race has had enough of 
the path of sorrow and refuses to go further," 

"We were pleased to visit another church which had been made 
into a hospital. There were many patients. Jlen wounded in 
the war with bandits were bandaged and sunning themselves in 
the open court. The shadow over all was the number of children 
with skin and scalp diseases, the result of dirt, vermin and ill- 
care. The heads of these poor, little.innocent things were an 
awful reflection on the heads of their families. If children are 
"sweet, new blossoms of humanity," these children had come up 
from a patch of weeds. The decrease of the Indian is due to 
insanitation, peonage, tribal intermarriage and neglect of chil- 
dren whose death rate is 50 per cent of all born. 

It was our good fortune to meet an Austrian "nobleman," 
that is, one higher than I had ever met in his old Vienna home, 
and his name was Eiuil Stransky. Without him I would have 
been as lonesome as Dante in Hell without his Virgilian guide. 
He was a cash register man and knew how to talk business to 
the sleepy Mexicans and register their cash for the Dayton, 
Ohio, office. He was a Hebrew but a true Christian compared 
with many of these people. He was a great find and we found 
him a great fellow. He could talk three languages, was at home 
in all Latin America and familiar with their ways and means, 
especially their mean ways. He led lis over to the market where 
on Sunday morning one finds the mass of people and not the 
people at the church mass. Like the Rialto the market was 
where natives most did congregate and it was a raotfly congrega- 
tion. There was everything for your appetite. If you had none 
before you looked around you soon had one, for there was some- 
thing nice and fresh in vegetables, meat, butter, cheese and eggs 
to make your mouth water and your stomach refuse to be com- 
forted until filled. 

Opposite the plaza in the arcade we discovered a small res- 
taurant. Wc waited long for our order. Liquor could be fum- 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 259 

ished at once but hot milk or coffee required much time to bring 
it to a boil, and to us in this altitude of 7,000 feet. Meantime 
an Indian boy came in with a basket of curios, religious emblems, 
apples and pears, all made out of onyx. The onyx quarries at 
Tecalli are famous and six miles from the city. The stone is 
of many colors, light gray, yellow, brown and of a fine texture. 
The plaza arcades were full of these onyx vendors. I bought an 
onyx pear and found it as soft as some of the hard dry bread 
on the table. This onyx is used in Puebla's public buildings 
and some of it is so transparent that it could be used for glass. 
It would be a fitting punishment for those who say travelers 
to Puebla should not fail to visit Cholula, if they were compelled 
to go there themselves. We went, and if you like my account of 
the trip, you may go as well, but remember what I told you and 
don't tell me to go to . 



ANCIENT CHOLULA 

CIHOLULA is a small town about seven miles from Pu- 
I ebia and famous for a gigantic Aztec pyramid crowned 
with a Spanish church. Taking a Puebla street car we 
passed a depot that had been recently gutted and 
burned by Zapatistas. Arriving at the station we learned the 
train that was to take us to Cholula was nothing but a little 
bob-tailed mule car. There were five in our party, Stransky, 
Gartsite, a whiskey-soaked doctor, "L" and myself. The car 
was to leave in five minutes and there was not a vacant seat in 
it. Natives with their bundles and produce had filled the seats 
and even the running board. The company refused to run an 
extra car, and since we were not permitted to sit on top of the 
car or the mules, we sat in front on the fender rail by the driver, 
trjnbig to avoid the whirl of the brake and the crack of the lash. 
On the level or down grade it was easy for the four mules, 
but when we came to the hill some of the natives had to get out 
and push. We stopped on a side track on a hill top to permit 
the returning car from Cholula to Puebla to pass. Half an hour 
we waited and no car appeared. Then the driver, instead of 
looking over the edge of the hill to see whether the car was com- 



ing, went on ahead, and five minutes later when we started down 



260 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

the hill we saw the other car coming up. All we could do was 
to change cars and mules. In the scramble our party managed 
to grab the front bench on the other car. I saw a hill in the 
misty distance and was told it was the pyramid. The more we 
rode the further we seemed to go from it for the car takes a very 
circuitous route. It was very warm and dusty and there was no 
special scenery near to keep our minds off our discomfort. We 
crossed an old bridge over the Atoyac river, met people on mule- 
back, saw clouds in the sky and clouds of dust in the roads. 
Finally we neared our desired goal, the so-called pyramid. It 
resembles a big bush and tree-covered hill. It is nearly 377 feet 
high and the eastern base is 425 feet. No one here could tell 
me this but I learned it on my return home when I consulted 
an encyclopaedia. This hill is thought to be the oldest and highest 
teocalli, "god's house," in all Mexico. It was Mexico's Mount 
Olympus erected to the god of the air, Quetzalcoatl, whose carved 
picture preserved in museum relics looks like a bow-legged Dia- 
butsu. His hands are clasped over his shins, and there is a fools- 
cap on his head, a riveted collar over his shoulders, and he wears 
wings by his cheeks. He was the happy god of art and agricul- 
ture. Under his smile fruits, flowers and grain laughed into 
fragrance and fertility and birds sang their sweetest songs. 

The pyramid is made of sun-baked brick. Like the pyramids 
of Teotihuacan, it is dwarfed by the pyramid mountains in the 
distance. Though Ossa and Pelion were piled on it, it wouldn't 
have been impressive. 

The same, smashing, Spanish spirit that destroyed the beauti- 
ful Moorish columns in Cordova to make an ugly Christian 
chapel, came to Mexico and destroyed hundreds of temples, 
sculptures, books of tradition, thousands of homes, and defaced 
this pyramidal site by building a Spanish style church on top of 
it. It looks like a bump on a log, a wart on a frog, a snail on a 
stone, a tiara on a brow of a hill. It is as fitting and congrous 
as a rustic beer garden would be on the top of Cheops, or a M. 
E. chapel on a Ceylon dagoba. 

This church was dedicated to the "Virgin de los Remedios," 
but the ruin is remediless now. As a popular shine it was a re- 
ligious rival of the Lady of Ouadalupe. A sort of Jacob's lad- 
der steps is built in the rough side of the hill for the feet of 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 261 

the faithful who climb up, with the sky above, the green of the 
trees, vine and moss and glory of the flower round about them. 

Some writers think this pyramid was built for religious use, 
others as a place of refuge from attacking enemies, and still oth- 
ers as a burial place for the kings. Legend says that it was 
built by a race of giants, but the gods grew angry and destroyed 
them. It may have been each, all or none of them. I wasn't 
there and don't know and I don't recall any man who was alive 
then or can tell me now. If there are any Aztecs in heaven I'll 
be sure and ask them all about it. Those of my readers who 
visit the other place may learn from Cortez and some of his sol- 
diers down there, why it was built. I fear it was under a forced 
contract with slaves; that it was an antique ant hill built by 
busy people. 

Cholula is the holy city of Mexico and is built at an elevation 
of 7,500 feet. When Cortez came here 150,000 peaceful people 
dwelt in and around. Now there are only 10,000 in town and 
36,000 in the districts round about. What can you expect after 
the blight of his bloody heel? Cortez pillaged and burned the 
town for two days and six thousand of the inhabitants were mas- 
sacred. Then he destroyed the idols and gods of the temples and 
made it 0. K. with his God by erecting crosses and images of 
the Virgin, and celebrating mass for the massacred. 

Assuming that my reader may wish to know more of Cortez, 
that churchly hero, that kind, angelic man of God, I offer the 
following few choice and well-known facts. 



CORTEZ, THE DEVIL CRUSADER 



A HUMORIST once said that it would have been fifteen 
cents in Mr. Judas' pocket if he never had been bom. 
No mathematician can estimate how much Mexico 
would have been worth if Cortez had never seen day- 
light. 

He was bom in Medellin, Spain, of a good family and soon 
became a black sheep. He was early sent to Salamanca to study 
law, and the little heathen became a law unto himself in two 
years. The only things he learned were the arts of deviltry and 
dissipation, the low degrees of D. D.'s. 



262 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

The next few years he developed into a rounder and rake. 
One night before taking a vacation voyage, he climbed a wall 
to see his lady love and fell with the wall on top of him. This 
gave him a "mash" he wasn't looking for. It is sad to think 
these stones were not his tombstones. He was carried away for 
repairs and his ship sailed off, leaving him in pain and morti- 
fication. 

Then he packed his steamer trunk for another sailing trip 
and took a West Indies Cruise for Santo Domingo. This was in 
1504, and though he was but 19 years old, he had already gone 
some. The next seven years of his life were as vigorous as the 
tropical vegetation, and the vines of his warm affections were 
luxuriantly trained around the trellis of young girls' hearts. 
He spent seven years in idleness, fighting duels and Indians and 
debauching country girls. 

Sighing for more "conquests," he went to Cuba with Velas- 
quez and received a political job there as alcade of St, lago, 
but he was lago without the saint. The one position he always 
filled was making love. As a warrior bold he besieged the heart 
of one of four sisters whose old father came to Cuba to buy real 
estate and for a little rest and recreation. Velasquez was in 
love with one of the sisters and learned that Cortez was a wicked 
trifler with one of the others. He reproached him and called 
him a dirty dog, or words of equal effect. This made Cortez mad 
and he plotted to put Velasquez out of the way. Be he was dis- 
covered and thrown in jail. Cortez could break jails as easily 
as hearts, and one dark night he got away and hid in a neigh- 
boring church whose sanctuary and refuge privilege he claimed 
as a "good" Christian. He remained several days, but if we may 
judge from his after life he was not very much improved by 
his religious surroundings. Attempting to escape from the 
church he was caught, chained and put on a ship to be sent to 
Santo Domingo for execution. With the skill of the vaudeville 
artist, who escapes from straight-jackets, gyves and chains, Cor- 
tez worked his feet from the irons, tip-toed to the deck, walked 
over to the rail and safely slid down into the water with a little 
splash, swam nshore, returned to the church sanctuary and occu- 
pied his old pew. 

Suffering more from pain of body than remorse of soul for 
the young miss whom he had wronged, he consented to marry 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 263 

her. Iler name was Miss Catalina Suarez. She was a good- 
looker, had a good disposition and was a good girl, too good for 
this man Cortez, who could have written a new chapter in Ovid's 
"Art of Loving," and given Byron, Goethe and Burns some 
pointers on Cupid's arrows. Catalina, her father and the gov- 
ernor forgave him and told him to brace up and settle down. 

Now the stage-hands of history shift the scene from Cuba to 
Mexico whence glowing and golden reports had been brought 
back by Grijalva, who has just discovered it. Because he hadn't 
settled down on it or taken a claim and claimed it, Velasquez 
was displeased and planned its conquest. Cortez wanted the po- 
sition as leader, for he was in big debt and needed the money. 
Tired of his father-in-law and hungering for new adventures, he 
bribed his influential friends, as we do now, to move the governor 
and get him the position. The pole was long enough and he 
knocked down the political plum. 

But when he sat sail Velasquez changed his mind, and jeal- 
ous of the glory and gold Cortez might get from conquest, he or- 
dered the fleet to stop and Cortez to be arrested at Trinidad. 
However, Cortez ' crew, to whom he had promised much, stood by 
him and Cortez told Velasquez he could go to Hispaniola, or 
any other place that began with the letter "h." 

His volunteer crew had been raised by great promises, but 
on the high seas Cortez used conscription, became a pious pirate 
and robbed ships of their goods, forcing their crews into his army 
service. The words, "Follow the Cross," were emblazoned on 
his black velvet banner, in reality a black flag of piracy. He 
had set sail on a crusade of cruelty and crime. 

The island of Cozumel, off Yucatan, was the first place 
touched and he was so ** touchy" when he saw what he was 
pleased to call heathen temples and idols that he made them a 
rock and junk pile, erected an altar and cross, and having "estab- 
lished" Christianity, started on his marauding, murdering, mis- 
sionary tour. 

At Tabasco, Mexico, he had a hot engagement with the na- 
tives and gave a mass before he massacred them. Thirty thou- 
sand of them were killed. When the poor Indians had seen his 
ships, and the Spaniards on them, and had heard the guns, they 
at first thought they were gods, but alas, too late, learned they 
were devils. After the battle, instead of boiling the bodies for 



264 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

Boap fat, the Spaniards picked up the dead, fat Indians, and 
sliced off pieces to dress their wounds, as mother did pork when 
she put it on our stone-bruised feet. Then Cortez and his men 
thanked God and with renewed strength smashed their idols and 
changed the name from Tabasco to St. ^lary of Victory. 

It was here that white slavery had its birth. T^wenty young 
Indians girls were offered as captives. Cortez picked out the 
daisy of the bunch, Donna Marina, for himself, and let his cap- 
tains fight over the others. Like a pirate captain he had started 
in to have a new girl in every port. He had left his girl wife 
behind him in Cuba. He was no fool and knew it wasn't right 
according to the laws of God and man, but he argued that he 
was doing so much for God and his church that such little sins 
as murder and adultery were too small to be noticed or repri- 
manded. Donna didn't object, for she had been brought up in 
polygamy and made to feel that the more wives one had the 
better the husband would be. She soon became interpreter and 
mother of a son. So they set off again, praising God and leav- 
ing the poor heathen to think of the new Christianity bequeathed 
them, what had struck them, and where in heaven or hell they 
were at. 

Dropping anchor at what is now Vera Cruz, Cortez saw the 
Indians, told them Charles V had sent his regards and some pres- 
ents to their king jMontezuma and that he, Cortez, was very anx- 
ious to see him. This was some lie. Cortez represented himself 
as a messenger from Spain and Charles V. But he came to this 
Eden like a serpent with fangs to bite, with a crowbar and pick 
to mine, with a whip to enslave, with torture chains for Inquisi- 
tion, with a hammer to knock the Aztecs and a sword to kill. 
Old "Monte" feared the Spaniards bearing gifts and sent his 
messengers back to Cortez with costly gold presents, asking to 
be excused, since it was his busy day. Cortez planned at once 
to make the social call, overcame the mutiny of his men, made 
friends of Montezuma's enemies, the Totonacs, and then, like 
another Agathocles, sunk his ships so that his men could not re- 
turn. He founded the city which he called "Villa Rica de la 
Vera Cruz," "Rich City of the True Cross." As usual gold 
came first with Cortez before God, and coin preceded Christ and 
cross. Vera Cruz, then as today, was the headquarters for in- 
trigue, lies and loot. All the time Cortez was here he sowed the 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 265 

devil's seed of perfidy between the natives and Montezuma, As 
he daily extended his tour of missions for the church he was 
perfidy personified in all the elements of cruelty and treacher- 
ous character that he was to use later in his conquest of Mexico. 

En route to Montezuma he stopped in to see the Tlascalans 
and whipped them without much difficulty, as easily as if a gat- 
ling gun were aimed at school boys only armed with baseball 
bats. When the Tlascalans wanted to sue for peace, and sent 
fifty of their leading citizens loaded with presents to Cortez, he 
took the gifts from their outstretched hands, cut off their hands 
and sent them back to camp where they were not so handy. 
Another proof of the divine tenderness of Christianity Cortez 
vouchsafed to the abominable heathen. The Tlascalans became 
his allies; they couldn't do anything else, and a little later Cortez 
came to Cholula and killed over 6,000 people. 

*'0n to Mexico" was the cry, and Montezuma was there wait- 
ing for him. Cortez approached the city, viewed the sublime 
scenery of mountain and valley and reached the town on the 
never-to-be-forgotten date, Nov. 8, 1519. 

The town of 300,000 was situated in the center of a great 
marshy, salt lake and was approached by three solid causeways 
of masonry, from three to six miles long, intersected with many 
wooden drawbridges. The people bowed before Cortez for they 
believed he was a descendant of the Sun, their patron God. He 
accepted their devotion and proceeded at once to act in a lordly 
manner. He selected a palace, as Carranza's soldiers do now, 
and appropriated everything he wanted. "While receiving this 
royal hospitality he was plotting against the city and king. 

Then news came to Cortez that some of his soldiers had been 
killed in an attack at Vera Cruz. The head of one of his men 
was brought to the capital. This wag evidence to the Indians 
that the Spaniards were mortal — the same argument that later 
appealed to the Hawaiians when Capt. Cook was wounded. 
Cortez' fertile brain now evolved a new plan of cruelty. He 
accused Montezuma, had him brought to Spanish quarters and 
placed him in chains and irons. The king declared himself to 
be innocent and said he would have the guilty Indian officer and 
son, together with the fifteen men who attacked the garrison, 
brought to Mexico City. But when the officer was tortured he 
swore that he had only acted under Montezuma's orders. Then 



266 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

Cortez ordered them all to be burned alive in the market place 
as a bright warning to any others who might object to his policy 
of benevolent assimilation. 

These Indians were Stoics and with no outcry stood and 
burned until they fell into ashes. The Soldiers stood around 
with loaded guns to shoot anyone who might interfere. So the 
deed was done. 

Next Cortez secured $6,500,000 loot from ^lexico City and 
passed another milestone in his progress as a Christian pilgrim. 
From being a mere cold-blooded murderer he now proceeds to 
mutilate and incinerate. 

Cortez was a ring-master of a two-ringed cruel circus. "While 
the captives were burning he went into the king's apartments, 
loaded I\Iontezuma with irons and chains sufficient to crush his 
back and spirit, and demanded that he should give up and swear 
to be a follower of Charles V, after which he would be free. 
Montezuma submitted, dug up heaps of jewels and $600,000 of 
pure gold. But there was no peace where wicked Cortez was. 
The Indians grew older and bolder. They drove the Spanish 
from the city at the battle of "Dismal Night." Cortez besieged 
the capital again, retook it and continued to splash with his 
bloody boots through many pages of IMexico City history. 

In addition to the blessings of the cross and a Christian 
civilization, Spain introduced small-pox, disease, devastation and 
death and ruled rampant over the country. Before this, Monte- 
zuma had been killed by his own soldiers, with two arrows and 
a stone, while he was making a speech to his people. His brother, 
Guatemozin, took up the fight and thus from bad to worse things 
went until there was a regular siege of 75 days when 50,000 
Mexicans died from famine and disease. The Indians made a 
brave stand and when the Spaniards entered the city they found 
a grave, black iniins, rivers of blood, houses filled with dead and 
the air rotten -uath decomposition. "When it was cleaned up they 
had a victor's time, drinking, dancing, girls and gold, though not 
so much booty as they expected. Guatemozin was put to torture 
by Cortez, oil was poured on his feet, fire kindled underneath, but 
he stubbornly refused to give in or give up, declaring the treaa- 
ures they were after were in the lake. His companion died 
from the torture. This one act of Cortez puts him in the Judas 
class. He didn't even include this affair in a postscript when 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 267 

he wrote home to his king, and not one of his saintly biographers 
has been bold enough to add an additional halo to him for this 
damned deed of torture. Guatemozin was later publicly exe- 
cuted with great cruelty. 

All the Indians in Mexico, not murdered, were enslaved and 
set to cut down forests and build up Mexico City. The only pay 
for any work was the lash. The Spaniards would not work, they 
wanted money and so they made the natives work. They stood 
over them with lash. There were revolts and counter revolts 
that were always quelled with greater hardships to the Indians. 
After killing and enslaving them the process of conversion to 
Christianity was very easy, especially as the Spaniards merely 
substituted their own Christians images for the heathen Aztec 
idols. 

While Cortez was thus publicly busy he endeavored to have 
the comforts of a quiet home and settle down after a hard day's 
work with his favorite Indian princess Marina. However, there 
was another v/oman in the case, his former wife, whom he had 
deserted in Cuba. She was tired of pining alone on a plantation 
and came to Mexico to look up her long-absent husband. She 
brought her big brother along to see that she received fair play. 
Cortez was very much surprised and embarrassed, but provi- 
dentially Catalina died of asthma within three months. This 
was an easy way for Cortez to get out of the dilemma, yet many 
of his biographers hint very strongly that he was another Dr. 
Crippen or Nero, and responsible for the deep damnation of 
her taking off. This hasn't been unquestionably proven, but 
after his previous record it is no very great tax on our imagina- 
tion to believe that he did it. 

Cortez was official boss here for a while, for in 1522 
Charles V had made him captain general and governor of 
Mexico and New Spain. But jealous courtiers and enemies of 
his in the Spanish court M^ere plotting against him. In 1522 
Cortez led an expedition to Honduras and while he was absent 
his enemies were busy and Estrada superseded him as governor. 
He went back to Spain to headquarters to answer his acfcusers, 
but was turned down, lost the title of governor, although he 
was honored with the position and title of Marquis del Yalle 
de Oaxaca. On his return to Mexico, his Spanish enemies again 



268 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

got the ear of Charles V, and he took ship once more to see his 
sovereign. He was received Avith coldness and neglect. 

His last days were like those of Cardinal Wolsey and he 
must have felt the same, 

"Had I but served my God with half the zeal 
I served my king, he would not in mine age 
Have left me naked to mine enemies." 

The king he had served so faithfully scarce granted him 
audience. One day Cortez forced himself through a crowd 
about the king's carriage and mounted the door step. Charles 
was furious at the bold caller and demanded to know who he 
was. Cortez felt that he was forgetful, as well as ungrateful, 
and handed him this verbal package, "I am a man who has 
given ye more prisoners than your ancestors left ye cities." 
This put Charles in a huff, widened the breach. Filled with 
disgust and despair, Cortez left the court and went into solitude, 
where, let us hope, he confessed his sins and found redeeming 
mercy. He died near Seville, Dec. 2, 1554, at the age of 63. He 
died, sending his love and gifts to his nine children, five of whom 
were illegitimate. Yet the quiet of the grave was denied him, 
for, like Columbus, his very bones were lugged from Spain to 
]\Iexico and finally placed in a monastery of Tezcuco, ^lexico, 
in a family vault, in a crystal coffin \vith valuable relics. It 
was securely barred and a beautiful and costly monument was 
built over him. 

Cortez went to Mexico as an apostle of the meek and pure 
Jesus and convei-ted the heathen with fire and sword. His 
life rivals all fiction. So passed this avaricious adventurer, 
bloody bigot, pious pirate, fanatical fiend and crusader of cru- 
elty. If there ever was a devil in jMexico, he was it. Cortez had 
a fine combination of the subtlety of a snake, the virtues of a 
vulture and the heart of a toad. His military genius, statesman- 
like plans and devotion to his church cannot atone for all else. 
Like Byron's Corsair, if he had one virtue, it was linked with a 
thousand crimes. 

The difference between the Protestant and Roman Catholic 
religions in Mexico is this — that the former does not use the steel 
sword of Pizarro and Cort€Z, but the "Sword of the Spirit," 
which is the Word of God, guaranteeing life, liberty and pursuit 
of happiness to all. 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 269 



CHOKED TO DEATH 



AT CHOLULA we found the Indians frolicking and 
happy. Natives and visitors were having a Sunday pic- 
nic and the pulque shops were crowded in the shady 
plaza. We took the last car back to town, since we 
didn't care to stay over night. Indians crowded on top of us, and 
when the car was full they sat in our laps, brushed our shoul- 
ders and everything had the appearance of a football scrimmage. 
Slowly we retraced our track. The sun set gloriously on the 
volcanoes "Izta" and "Popo," and the fields, maguey and mud 
huts we had seen on our way out, were hidden by this crowd 
that sat on us. I wouldn't have objected so much if the girls 
and women, sitting on my lap and standing on my feet, had 
been young and pretty and had taken at least one bath in a 
month. Instead, they were a lot of ragged, dirty, diseased, 
smelly, vermin-infested market women. To make all this worse, 
there was a man on my left who exhaled a rotten rum odor that 
was asphyxiating. Stransky saved my life with his eigarets. 
All five of us took them and raised a cloud of smoke to kill the 
stench. Cigarets have doubtless been the death of many, but 
these cigarets saved our lives. There was a young boy in front 
of me who was stupid with pulque, and had a hard time to keep 
his feet on the car. Cartloads of Indians passed, swaying, singing 
and shouting; they were soaked with pulque and on a Sunday 
spree. When it grew dark a sentimental beggar behind me 
started some Mexican love songs and twanged his guitar while 
the passengers joined in the chorus. Whether it was the up- 
grade or music, the mules refused to go, and for half an hour 
the voice of the driver was heard above the chorus, swearing 
at the mules. Aft^r some Indians stepped off and helped push 
the car we were under way and dragged into the Puebla station 
at 8 p. m. 

GOOD AND BAD 

FTER supper we were glad to close this strenuous 

day with some real religious thought and service. The 

little Baptist church building was well filled, lighted, 

airy, the music was good and an earnest sermon was 

preached in Spanish by Dr. Brown. At its conclusion he came 



A 



270 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

down the aisle and gave us the right hand of fellowship, urging 
us to remain and see the baptism of some IMexican converts, by 
immersion, a symbolism of the washing of regeneration — of death 
to sin and resurrection to "newness of life." "We did. This 
was the first time I had ever seen a I\rexican in water and, know- 
ing their aversion to it, I fear it will be difficult to induce many 
of them to enter the church by this door. "WTiat a difference 
between the democracy of a Baptist church, that comes from an 
open Bible, and the aristocracy of the Roman church, which 
comes from enforced priestly mandates ! 

DeFoe said, "Wherever God erects a house of prayer, the 
devil always builds a chapel there." In this churchly town 
Satan swings his red lamp of danger, but the multitude takes 
no heed and rushes on the broad-gauge way to death. 

In this "City of Angels" there were many fallen angels. 
We watched them dance in a private house. I was surprised 
to see a private soldier, who was dancing, remove his coat when 
his superior officer entered. The madam gave him a civilian's 
coat, which permitted him to continue his dance. This is a 
military rule with no exception. It is all right to visit such a 
place, but when the superior sinner enters the inferior sinner 
must vacate the premises or stay there disguised. 

Next morning we were up at 5 :30 after a shivering night 
during which we piled our overcoats on the bed to keep warm. 
On our way to the station we saw throngs of bare-footed Indians 
who appeared to be comfortable as they trotted over the cold 
stones. Warming up with hot coffee before entering the train, 
we secured the first-class coach. The windows were cracked 
with shot and the bullet marks on the sills were reminders of 
former lively trips. Nevertheless, the agent assured Stransky 
and us that the train would reach Orizaba in safety, but from 
there on he did not Imow what might happen. 

The country between Puebla and Apizaco is marked by 
bandit-burned stations, but the scenery of field and mount-ain 
was sublime. Within hailing distance was our old friend "Popo" 
and his old girl, still asleep. 

It was tliirty miles to Apizaco, where we waited for the 
train from Mexico City to take us to Orizaba. The traveler 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 271 

here may procure small bottles of cognac to brace up for perils 
that are to come. The town was full of soldiers to guard us 
down the mountains, and the station agent here said the train 
would go to Vera Cruz that day. When we got on the train the 
conductor laughed, saying, "No, indeed, only to Cordova," a 
station just beyond Orizaba. 



THE STAR MOUNTAIN 



LOOKING from the window, as we journeyed along, we 
saw a dance of sand and dusty whirlwinds that resem- 
bled smoky chimneys or small waterspouts. We drank 
in the sublime view of Orizaba, the "star mountain," 
an extinct volcano 18,250 feet high, the next highest mountain 
in North America, only surpassed by Mount McKinley. Its top 
was white with eternal snow and ice. The crater is several hun- 
dred feet in diameter and there are small glaciers on the side. 
The last eruption was in the middle of the Sixteenth Century. 
Two Americans made the first ascent of the mountain in 1848. 
It is a sort of artificial ice plant to the Indians, in the surround- 
ing towns, who come here, cut the ice and slide or ship it down 
by native back or mule pack. When the God of the Quetzcoatl 
grew weary of Cholula and said, "Never again," and shook off 
the dust of his shoes, he journeyed to the coast of Goatzcoalcos, 
where death got his goat and he was brought to the top of Mount 
Orizaba and burned. Proud even in death, his liberated spirit 
took the shape of a peacock and flew to heaven. Since that 
time the mountain has been called " Citlaltapetl, " "Star Moun- 
tain," which doesn't explain the name. It may be because it 
was a companion of the stars which hover over it like flies over 
a sugar-frosted cake. 

Indians appeared at the small stations and offered us souve- 
nirs. I bought a tortilla stone and roller made from lava, fear- 
ing that before I reached Vera Cruz it might be necessary to 
camp out and that it would come in handy. There is no bread 
here without a stone to grind the corn. 



272 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

THE VALLEY AND SHADOW OF DEATH 



ESPERANZA is a sUtion about eight thousand feet above 
the sea. The word means "hope." When we left it 
we were to leave hope behind, but hoped for the best. 
Soldiers filled a flat ear coupled to ours, a train load 
of "exploring" soldiers started out ahead of us, and we pulled 
out with a two-headed or double-headed engine. Most of the 
eight thou&md feet descent is made in 20 miles, 4 feet to every 
100. In order to beat the law of gravitation this double- 
headed engine can work in an opposite direction to that of the 
moving train. 

We darted from the light of the plateau to the dark of the 
tunnel, and by "Boca del Monte," "Mounl^n's Mouth," which 
seemed like the jaws of death. Suddenly there opened before us 
a splendid panorama of pines and peaks and way beneath lay 
the vast valleys. We shot through dark tunnels, hugged moun- 
tain sides, crept across bottomless chasms, on spider-web-like 
bridges, and most of the time could see our scouting soldier train 
ahead looking for bandits. 

What resembled scar marks on the face of the hillside, in 
the distance, on near approach proved to be dynamited trains 
which had fallen down the mountain. At best the road is dan- 
gerous enough, but when every few minutes we saw a wrecked 
freight or passenger train strewn along our tracks, so near that 
we could touch it, and other trains thrown over the precipice 
to the. dizzy depths of the valley beneath, it was thrillingly dis- 
concerting. It is bad enough to be blown up or die on the level, 
but the prospect of being somersaulted over a mountain precipice 
2,000 feet below is not charming. This was March and the 
Bandit Wrecking Company had been at work every few days 
for the last two months. We were "looking out" in more ways 
than one. Death might be sudden, but at any rate it would be 
'mid sublime and beautiful surroundings — and the piled up 
hills and monuments would be our monument. In the valleys 
below, the trees were like lace, the fields like a checkerboard, 
and the bottom looked like a green carpet on which children 
had builded toy cities. The view of ]\raltrata town below was 
glorious. 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 273 

Trains going down the mountain run faster and are there- 
fore safer than those that come up slowly and give time for 
bandits to rob ad libitum. In the valley below we saw an 
engine with two flat cars. Was it waiting to have the track 
cleared of some wreck? When we passed it, what had looked 
like boxes and baggage on the flat cars were soldiers and a 
gatling gun ready to shoot and command the valley. They were 
waiting for us and if we had been attacked would have come to 
our rescue. 

La Joya is a "jewel" of a little tree-shaded station where 
we paused, felt safe and drew a long and pious breath as we 
looked back at our long, dangerous, serpentine trail down the 
mountainside. Girls celebrated our safe arrival by offering 
pulque to drink, bread and meat to eat and all sorts of fruit 
for dessert. "El Infernillo," "Little Hell," is the name of 
a dark gorge. Beyond is Mount Borrego, an historic spot 
where 100 brave French Zouaves put to flight 50,000 Mexican 
mollycoddle soldiers. 



ORIZABA 



WE REACHED Orizaba about 3 o'clock, 4,000 feet down 
from Esperanza, having come from the "templada" 
to the "tierra caliente" zone. Vera Cruz was only 
four hours away, but there had been no train down 
for two days and Orizaba was full of people waiting to get 
do^vn and catch the boat. No train had even come up from 
Vera Cruz. It seems that two days before, between Cordova 
and Soledad, the bandits attempted to dynamite a freight 
train, but set off the charge too soon and simply tore up a big 
section of the track. Heaven be thanked, it was repaired. This 
day the train came in from Vera Cruz and we knew it would 
start back next morning at 6 o 'clock. 

On the train en route for Orizaba a Mexican came over to 
a pretty European girl sitting in front of me, told her the hotels 
were full in Orizaba, that he had wired for a room and would 
be glad to have her share it with him. He spoke so loudly that 



274 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

it was all that a Spanish-spcnkinc: friend, Avho sat next to me, 
could do to keep himself from giving this ^Mexican libertine a 
smash on the jaw that would have made the renewal of such a 
proposal impossible. 

Orizaba is 70 miles from Vera Cruz. It is a famous resort 
for tourists, Mexicans and mos(|uitoes, and in the old yellow 
fever days was a refuge for people fleeing from Vera Cruz. It 
is a mountain-walled city, like Manitou, and has remarkably 
beautiful scenery and climate. Although four thousand feet 
above the sea level, it is very hot and tropic. Its population in 
1900 was nearly 33,000. The Orizaba cotton factories are 
among the largest in the republic and her forests are famous 
for ferns and orchids. It is one of the oldest towns in America. 
Montezuma captured its former site in 1457. Once it was the 
capital, and the French occupied it in 1862. At the time of 
the French intervention European interlopers made it a trysting 
place, and when Maximilian was in the heyday of his brief 
summer-day reign, he made it a pleasure resort for himself and 
his elect friends. It was anciently called " Ahayualizapan," 
which means "Joy of AA^ater." The name now is Orizaba, beer 
has been substituted for water, and Orizaba is the Mexican 
]\Iilwaukee. All over Mexico we had seen this beer advertised 
in newspapers and on signboards. It is, "The beer that made 
Milwaukee jealous." People who are good judges of good beer 
pronounce it excellent. This of itself would make the city a 
famous resort. "We tried it repeatedly, since drinking water is 
flirting with dysentery and death, two dangerous coquettes, and 
I never flirt with anybody or anything when I am away from 
home — if I can help it. 

Labor conditions are now good in Orizaba, though ten years 
ago, when workmen struck for better wages and conditions, they 
were shot down by the score in cold blood. 

The to^\Ti has one closed coach which meets all trains and it 
rolled us over the cobblestone roads. It was as if royalty ap- 
proached, for everyone walks or rides on the street car. The 
Diligencias Hotel was overflowing and the outlook was that we 
would camp out all night. But Stransky knew the proprietor 
of a small commercial drummer's hotel and we were fortunate 
to get the only two rooms left, dark and buggy as they were. 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 275 

FLEAS— FEATHERS— FLASHLIGHTS 



WE NOT only found fleas in our beds, on the trains, in 
the homes and hotels and on the people, but dead 

g*5fr^ ones dressed up as men and women for sale in the 
^"•f^^M souvenir shops. Mr, T. N. Patten gave me two boxes, 
each of which is scarcely one-half of an inch square. In one 
box there are two fleas dressed up as man and woman. The 
man wears a red serape, white shirt, sombrero and brown pants 
and stands by a woman who is dressed in purple and green and 
holds a black umbrella over her head. The other fleas are a 
bride and bridegroom. She is dressed with flowers, a veil and 
a white dress green embroidered. He is clad in a Prince Albert 
with a stiff-bosomed shirt and holds her arm. There are other 
designs such as a water carrier and his jug, a full-rigged bull- 
fighter and Spanish dancers in gay costumes. 

Captain Curtis gave me specimens of most beautiful feather- 
work made out of the colored plumage of humming birds and 
formed into the shape of various birds. The Mexicans love to 
make little clay animals — dogs, mules and bulls, all perfect in 
proportion, as well as people and tiny dolls, not half an inch 
high, perfect in form and party society dress. This love for the 
minute and marvelous further shows itself in beautiful drawn- 
work, rare and delicate as the lace you find in Italy and Spain. 
Mexican dyes are world-famed, and the fine, fast-colored serapes 
and rugs are colored by cochineal insects. The catchy eurioa 
are for the tourist trade. All this shows ingenuity more than 
genius. It is really sad and too bad that Mexicans cannot do 
big things equally well. 

Some Mexican natives may not know what a flashlight is at 
night, yet they have a natural one of their own. It is a green- 
black beetle an inch long, and, judged by the amount of phos- 
phoric matter he emits through his reflector eyes, he must be 
a brainy bug. The natives catch a number of them, put them in 
a little cage and have a good lantern. Instead of wrist watches, 
the Indian watches his step in the woods, makes a torch of three 
of these flies and fastens them to his ankle. If a girl wants to 
attract attention, shine like a star or have her lover meet or 
follow her, she wears these bugs in her hair covered with a trans- 
parent veil. 



276 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

SEEING THINGS 



ASQT'^ARE from our place we saw a small church now 
used as a barracks. The women within were sitting 
on the floor sewing clothes and patching pants for 
soldiers. In the street there were piles of food and 
fruit for sale. Climbing the hilly street to the main plaza we 
found good stores well stocked with even-thing except the big, 
high, Mexican sombreros. We had left them behind with the 
volcanoes, the scrapes and hordes of beggars. The people were 
clean, well dressed, laughing, social and civilized. The girls 
are said to be prettier here than anywhere, except at Jalapa, 
because the Spanish type has remained pure and unmixed. The 
scenery is charming and these girls are more so. On the street, 
indoors, from balconies and even in the street ears these sweet, 
chocolate-brown Venuses gave evidence they were glad to see 
us and trusted we would stay over a week or so to get acquainted 
and have a good time. Orizaba has many cafes and coffee shops 
where girls were singing and men playing piano and guitar. 
With beer and beauties it was a bewitching Bohemia of a place, 
and flower fragrance was everywhere. 

Crossing the plaza we entered the cathedral. I think the 
organ must have been sick, for it uttered fearful cries and 
groans of distress, but it was heavenly harmony to the ignorant, 
devout Indians on their knees in a two-abreast line. They were 
holding a sort of Venetian lantern on a stick and mumbling 
something I trust the good Lord and they understood, for I 
couldn't. In every corner and angle of the church I found the 
largest assortment of charity boxes I had ever seen. One 
traveler here noted that in an Orizaba church he counted twelve 
boxes for specific objects, eighteen objects for general contribu- 
tions, making thirty in all. Among his enumeration were two 
boxes "For the Work of the Parish" and others as follows: 
"For Our Lady Carmen," "For the Blessed Virgin," "For the 
Blessed Souls," "For St. Michael," "iMonthlv Mass of Jesus," 
"For the Marble Cross," "For the Sick," "For the Sick of S. 
Vincent and S. Paul," "For Our Father Jesus Carrying the 
Cross," "For Mary Conceived Without Sin." 

The strangest thing I ever saw in any heathen or Christian 
temple was the statue of a ballet dancer in this church. Her 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 277 

lifted skirt showed her legs and feet, she held one hand on her 
hip and one above her head. The church door was open, but 
how she ever blew in and found sanctuary among the images 
of the blessed Madonna and saints is inexplicable. Of course 
we know that a sinner like Augustine may become a saint, but 
who or what this danseuse had been and why she was here I 
could not learn. 

The town is picturesque with its hills, fine-wooded park, 
shrine-decorated bridges over mountain streams, streets climb- 
ing up and sliding down and something new and fresh in nature 
and human nature at every turn. 

At our hotel we sat down with the family to a big supper, 
then sauntered around the town to the plaza and by a theatre 
where the movie, ''Purity," was being, exhibited. This was the 
only purity I had found in Mexico. Although the audience was 
a mixed one, the young men laughed, stamped and howled, 
making loud, lewd and foul remarks about the chaste, nude 
model on the screen, that would have disgraced a pack of 
drunken sailors. The girls and women in the theatre didn't 
seem to object to the remarks, but laughed. You must remem- 
ber that in Mexico some ''nice" ladies use "nasty" words. 

Our hotel room, like all the others, was on the ground floor 
and opened on a patio full of tropical plants. All that night 
Indians came and went, pattering by our door, making the hours 
long and restless. Then, too, we had left an order to be called 
at 4:30 for the early train. Foolish! There was no danger of 
our oversleeping here. The air was stifling, the iron bed was 
without sheets, and the mattress had terrifying stains on it, as 
though someone had been murdered. It was like sleeping on 
concrete and was as hilly and bumpy as the mountains round 
the town. This mattress mountain range was infested with 
many ferocious, wild and blood-thirsty animals — whether bug, 
mosquito or flea matters little — whether having wings or not, 
they got there just the same. We could feel them bite their 
tattoo on us. After four hours of sleepless unrest we rose with 
maps and pattern marks of Mexico covering our backs. Added 
to this were the rank odors from the unsanitary kitchen and 
lavatory across the patio that were gently wafted to our couch 
of dreamless slumber. 



278 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

No one waked up to call us, so we dressed by flashlight 
within and starlight without and stumbled over the sleeping 
porter into the open street. The night before we had pai<i six 
dollars gold for our one little pen and the proprietor was so 
pleased that he gave us a rank Mexican cigar. 

Stransky hailed a night prowler to get us a hack, and 
another man to go down to the train and sit in a first-class 
coach seat and hold it till we came. This is the only way you 
can reserve your seat in a Mexican train. At the station the 
waiting room was used as a dormitory at night for the soldiers 
who run ahead and guard the trains. An hour before the train 
started the bugler woke up, rubbed his eyes, rose, yawned, and 
bugled his companions to wake up and get up. Tliey were 
wrapped in scrapes and sleep. After a ten-minute solo they 
rose one by one, got ready and prepared for the trip to Vera 
Cruz. I met an Englishman here by the name of Edwards. He 
was a hide dealer bound for Vera Cruz. He steered us into a 
lunch counter where a Scotchman served us with hot coffee and 
eggs at a fabulous price. But what was money to us ? The most 
dangerous part of the road lay ahead of us and we wanted to 
die with full stomachs. 



A NERVOUS RIDE 



OUR train had a carload of soldiers behind us and a 
train of "explorers" before us — we took our seats and 
were off. It was sunrise and the whole heavens were 
on fire. Orizaba peak blushed like a bride, the green, 
tropical foliage-clad hills round about were like flower girls in at- 
tendance. The air was fresh, the trees and rocks were dripping 
with dew and glistening like Oriental gems. Leaving the red- 
tiled town and the big factories, we dashed by splendid fields 
of corn, coffee, rice and tobacco, orchards and cattle ranches. 
Down and down we went, crawling and curving, threading 
tunnels, skirting deep ravines and crossed a big, curved bridge 
100 feet above a white-foaming river below. This is the won- 
derful valley, or barranca, of Metlac. Then appeared more 
tunnels, more glimpses of grandeur and beauty, and of the 
snoAv-crowned, sunlit crest of Orizaba. We stopped at Cor- 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 279 

dova. In 1895 this town had a population of 8,000. Today 
many of her citizens are bandits who rest between the blowing 
up of the trains. Cordova's trade is sugar, coffee and tobacco, 
and her manufactures cotton and woolen goods. 

The town looks very unlike the city of the same name in 
Spain with its river, bridge and mosque. This Mexican, over- 
grown village was once a flourishing city, was founded in 1618 
and is the center of the coffee and sugar country. It has a pic- 
turesque market, church, plaza and a monument to the patriots 
who fought against the Spanish. It is a dreamer's sleepy para- 
dise; a heaven for idlers; a town where Summer stops all the 
year long; where the poet, painter and naturalist love to dream 
and study ; where lazy lovers worship the trinity of girls, drink 
and cigarets ; where everybody swings in the hammock ; a drowsy 
town whose rest is only broken by bandit raids. Here the In- 
dian girls offei;ed us beautiful flowers held in bamboo cane 
vases. 

When we left the town we sat tight in our seats, for the 
route from here to Soledad was a string of wrecked trains. 
While the soldiers were loading their guns and making ready 
for something "somewhere," we knew not what, "L" and I 
were loading kodaks. The rolls of films stuck, Edwards and 
Stransky tried to help and made it worse, so that for ten min- 
utes four men were all thumbs and sat provoked at two kodaks 
and at each other's clumsiness and forgot all about the danger- 
ous country we were passing through. We lost a fine chance 
to be nervous, but there is a great law of compensation. With 
the camera loaded we found some fine shots of landscape to 
right and left. 

This country of rushing rivers, green hills and rapturous 
ravines dense with tropical vegetation afforded easy escape for 
the bandits. We slowed down to cross the Atoyac river, over a 
famous bridge 330 feet long and guarded by soldiers at each 
end. The train stopped at the town of the same name on the 
other side. It was simply a heap of ashes, skeleton iron and 
charred wood. Only a month before the whole town was burned 
to the ground by bandits, raided and looted. A freight box- 
car was being used as a station and warehouse, buildings and 
native houses and huts stood in ruins. The people looked at 
our train in a dazed, disappointed, surprised manner, as if they 



280 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

had expected us to be held up a few miles back, when they 
might have been able to get some plunder. We crossed another 
bridge, 220 feet long, at Chiquihuite, and another one 300 feet 
before crossing to San Alego. Both of these towns were pic- 
tures of desolation and despair, a mass of black ruins against 
a background of green foliage. 

Our track between these stations was lined on either side 
with train wrecks of burnt wood and heaps of tangled steel. 
So far, so good, for us, and so bad for our predecessors. Paso 
del Macho was worse and more of it. "L's" photo of its station 
shows a roofless, rock enclosure four feet high, with a soldier 
standing guard over the telegraph. The rest of the station 
was nothing but bare, upright steel poles. 

TALES OF TRAVELERS 



STRANSKY recalled the place vividly. He had Avalked 
here with his wife on his back from a wrecked train 
further down the road a month before, like Aeneas, 
when he carried his father Anchises on his back at 
the fall of Troy. His train, and the "explorer" one ahead of 
it, had both been dynamited by 200 bandits. He had seen 
soldiers shot down in front of him while he and the rest of the 
passengers were robbed. Those passengers who tried to escape 
before they were robbed were shot. They were lined up near 
the track and politely relieved of their money "for the good of 
the cause." In this encounter many of the soldiers were killed. 
Mr. Edwards, the hide man, then related what had befallen 
him at Torreon a few months before. After they were eighteen 
miles out of town they were held up by Villistas, robbed of 
everything but their underwear and compelled to walk back 
eighteen miles in their bare feet. 

A BRUSH WITH BANDITS 



F 



mnfi 

9! 



ROM Paso del Macho to Soledad there is a thicket of 

low-lying, dead gray brush about six feet high on each 

side of the track. The train slowed up when we passed 

through a rocky defile whose sides were black with the 

dynamite explosion of a recent train wreck. A few minutes later 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 281 

we went through, a freight train wreck burning on both 
sides of our track. It had been held up and set afire 
three days before and was still smouldering. Further on 
we rode by the grim, iron debris of Stransky's passenger train. 
Such scenes were very depressing and while we prayerfully 
hoped we might reach Soledad, the next station, in safety, the 
engine suddenly put on the car brakes and came to a stand- 
still. "L" looked out of the window — there was no station — • 
nothing except brush on either side, but the train of soldiers 
in front of us had stopped. Stransky and Edwards told "L" 
to keep his head in unless he wanted to have it shot off. The 
bandits had shot at the "explorer" guard ahead of us, who 
returned the fire and waited till our train came up. 

One of their buglers blew a call and the soldiers in the flat 
car behind us trooped out, joined the "explorers" and rushed 
with them pell-mell into the bush where the shots had come 
from. "L" started to the other side of the car to take a picture 
of the passing show, but Stransky held him back and told him 

not to show the kodak in the window or some d , blank fool 

of a bandit would think it was a new kind of gun and make 
him a target. 

A woman back of us prayed, counted her beads and crossed 
herself. Others were pale and crying. One pulled her diamond 
earrings off and hid them. A mother tried to quiet her crying 
baby. Men were hiding their money, getting away from the 
windows, ducking behind seats and baggage on the floor out of 
bandit range, while one or two brave passengers cocked their 
guns ready to shoot. Stransky sang "Nearer, My God, to Thee," 
"L" and I were very still and spent our time in making small 
change to give the bandits. 'Mid all this sudden excitement 
and nervous fear there was one thing to smile at. A big Mexican, 
who had one or two drinks too many, was sitting sound asleep 
by a window, snoring, with his mouth open and his head 
thrown back, making a perfect bandit target. He was alone on 
that side of the car and blissfully unconscious of the rapid-fire 
events. It was every man for himself. As he was a man we left 
him alone. 

This suspense lasted ten or fifteen minutes. We all breathed 
hard and low, and I think I broke the world's record, for I held 
my breath fifteen minutes — at least it seemed that long. You 



282 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

needn't laugh. "We didn't. I wasn't thinking of getting ray 
ship at Vera Cruz, but how many more minutes it would be 
before the train was blown up or we were robbed or shot. I 
never was more solemn in my life, and couldn't be if a doctor 
should suddenly appear and tell me to stop writing this minute 
for I was to die in a quarter of an hour. 

However thick the bullets may have been flying in the thicket, 
none of them touched us. In this brush with the brush bandits 
our soldier guard succeeded in driving them away and returned 
to the train in groups. Some few lingered, the bugler grew 
impatient and blew the calls. Finally three soldiers came bound- 
ing through the thicket like rabbits, jabbering and gesticulating 
with their guns. Whether the bandits were returning or not, 
the engineer didn't care to know, for he pulled out from this 
undesirable stopping-place as fast as possible. 

It may interest the reader to know that two days later the 
train from Vera Cruz to Orizaba was held up. Time and travel 
here are uncertain and unsafe to say the least, and they say the 
least about it. You know but little unless you chance to be in 
the wreck. 



SAVED 




SOLEDAD was reached at last and we were safe, for 
there were no bandits between there and Vera Cruz. 
Thankful we surely were and made many good prom- 
ises for the future, as we thought of "What might 
have been." All the town was out to meet us, and from their 
looks and actions they seemed to know more of our narrow 
escape than we did. Some of their faces showed signs of in- 
quisitive disappointment. It is well laiown that these attacks 
are planned by the bandits who stay in these little towns and 
are housed and fed by them for a promised protection. They, 
too, pay tribute, as any private hacienda planter does to prevent 
his place from being burned. The mere fact that Soledad was 
not destroyed was plain proof that it had met all the demands 
of the bandits. 

A few more small villages, some farms and natives, and we 
saw the sea and the weather-beaten palms of Vera Cruz. Before 



I 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 283 

the train stopped at the station a mob of beggars and baggage 
boys boarded the train, and the guards had their hands full 
preventing them from stealing our valises from under our eyes 
and out of our hands. One boy hid in the wash room, came 
out after the guard left and picked up a valise, but was relieved 
of it and kicked out. 

At the station young men outcried the hotel runners, in- 
forming us that there were rooms at their homes for rent, and 
that their pretty sisters would be thrown in free of charge. 

Paul's experience in Macedonia was ours in Mexico. Substi- 
tuting a word I said, "For when we were come into MEXICO, 
our flesh had no rest, but we were troubled on every side ; with- 
out were fightings, within were fears. " As we rode to the hotel 
I repeated with a sincerity and meaning never before felt the 
words of the shepherd Psalmist, * ' God is our refuge and strength, 
a very present help in trouble." 

At Puebla there was a rumor that the boat we expected to 
make at Vera Cruz had been canceled on account of the German 
war scarce. I sent a telegram to the office at Vera Cruz making 
inquiry. That was Sunday and I requested an answer at once. 
I received no reply that day and when I reached Orizaba Monday 
I sent another wire and again received no reply. Here I was 
in Vera Cruz Tuesday and with sad misgivings went to the 
office and asked about the boat. The agent replied it was due 
to sail in three days. Then I asked him in no uncertain manner 
why he had not answered my wires and saved me a lot of worry. 
He laughed and replied that he had never heard of me since I 
went away weeks before, and for aught he knew I was dead 
somewhere in Mexico. I spoke of the two wires I had sent and 
he smiled again, saying, "Why, they won't get here for several 
days." I learned the telegraph wires were up and all right, but, 
as was to be expected, the service was crooked. If you want a 
message sent you must pay the regular rates and then a graft 
of 25 to 50 cents in addition. Then the operator will agree to 
put it through that day — if he doesn't forget it. Think of it! 
Although our trains were help up we reached Vera Cruz three 
days before our telegram. It required three days to send a 
telegram sixty miles. 

"L," Stransky and I agreed that if we ever reached Vera 
Cruz alive we would visit the first place of worship in sight 



284 THE DEVn. IN MEXICO 

and offer thanks for our deliverance, whether it was in a Chinese 
Joss house, Je^vish synagogue or a Christian church. After a 
good night's rest at the Diligencias and breakfast in the portales, 
we walked over to the cathedral and paid our vows. 

Next day I read a posted notice on the station board saying 
there was through service between Vera Cruz and Mexico City, 
although the authorities knew better, and that at best the train 
could get no farther than Orizaba. 

It was as difficult to get out of ]\Iexico as it had been to get 
in. It was necessary for us to procure a passport from the 
American consul showing we were American citizens. Not only 
this, but one from the Mexican custom-house official and another 
from the Immigration Office. In each of the last two cases we 
slipped a little tariff tax as proof of our love for the ]\Iexican 
government. Before we could put our baggage on the boat it 
was thoroughly searched to see if we were carrying away any 
gold, silver, Mexican idols, anti(iuities, suspicious-looking books, 
papers and letters. As in a former Russia experience I had 
nothing contraband. Even my notes for this book I kept in ray 
head and my photographs hidden in my money belt. They 
were not discovered. Ye gods of ]\Iontezuma ! If they had only 
known who I was, what I had on them and was to put over in 
this book, my Mexican lectures, and the press of the United 
States, they would have put me against the wall and shot me, 
or in chains in some dark dungeon, or confiscated everything 
but the undershirt on my back. 



SOME LETTERS 



FROM Mexico City to Vera Cruz I wrote letters hom-e 
to my wife expecting that each one would be my last, 
and they were letters multum in parvo, for I knew 
they might be opened by the censor, and if there was 
anytliing suspicious, their authorship would be traced and I 
would be punished. I merely spoke in general terms of the 
fine time we were having. Apart from the terms of endear- 
ment I used, they were as empty of the true condition of affairs 
in Mexico as if they had been written by a diploraut or paid 
newspaper correspondent. Many Americans at Vera Cruz and 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 285 

Tampico, who wish to send some important message home, give 
their letters to passengers or in care of the ship captain. 

Recently I received the following letter and have deleted 
the writer's name and towns mentioned, because if I were to 
give them Mexico would compel him to give up his possessions 
and his life if they caught him : 

''Our sugar season closed on May 4th, We were obliged to 
leave thousands of tons of sugar-cane standing in the fields for 
lack of sufficient labor and animals. On April 20th, 1917, the 
rebels blew up a train on our place and more than 60 people 
were killed by the explosion and the gun fire that followed. 
This of course resulted in another suspension of train service. 
However, by the liberal use of money we secured a special train 
of locomotive and ten cars with cargadores, also a military 

escort which went from -* — in the morning and returned 

in the evening of the same day, so that we were able to get out 
in this manner the greater part of the sugar on hand. The 
balance we are trying to send out a few bags at a time, and in 
due course I hope we may be fortunate enough to get out all 
of this year's production. Our place is about 25 miles below 

, on the railroad. I am informed that every 

house on the railway from up to within a few miles of 

has been destroyed by the rebels. We are still paying 

them tribute weekly in order to avoid destruction of our factory 
and other buildings. In former years they were content with 
paper money, but now they demand, and receive, gold, and 
we have to pay them thousands. 

** Knowing the conditions prevailing in Mexico, you can 
imagine my feelings when, on arriving in New York, I read 
in the evening 'Post' a letter on the editorial page from a gen- 
tleman who claimed to have just returned from Mexico City. In 
this letter the writer congratulated the 'Post' on its editorials, 
which had apparently ridiculed statements made by people who 
knew that a state of anarchy prevailed in Mexico, and in the 
course of the letter he stated that Villa was confined to a small 
mountainous section, that Zapata had been entirely overcome, 
that Felix Diaz had never been anything more than a 'joke' 
in Mexico, and that practically the only unrest in the country 
was occasioned by the now liberated people trying ' to find them- 
selves' politically, and he referred to the formation of different 



286 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

political parties. He even had the nerve to refer to the sup- 
pression of the Blexieo City newspaper, "El Universal," and 
the arrest of its publisher as being quite proper. Certainly I 
hold no brief for said publisher, who was notoriously a "gringo- 
hater," but I know that his downfall came about through a 
certain editorial w^ith a caption, "Carranza Solo," that appeared 
in "El Universal" the day before the suppression of the paper, 
whereas government sources tried to make it appear that the 
publisher was arrested through due process of law on the charge 
of treason on account of certain references to the army. 

"In another newspaper I was amused to see a writer specu- 
lating on the probability of Carranza, on account of German 
influence, confiscating the oil fields. As you doubtless learned 
in Mexico that every producing oil concern has to pay tribute 
to the bandit or rebel leader in his section, just as the sugar 
companies have to pay tribute to the rebel ' jefe' in their section, 
you can easily see the joke. 

"Just before I left , the official announcement was 

made that export taxes on oil, etc., and many of the stamp taxes 
■were to be increased 100 per cent from that date and that the 
additional 100 per cent was to be paid in the paper currency 
known as 'infalsificables.' 

"You perhaps know that the original issue of paper money 

by the Carranza government, stated by his organ in to 

amount to some 430,000,000 pesos, was taken out of circulation 
about May 1, 1916. The decree which annulled this money 
stated that holders might deposit same Avith the government 
and that eventually they would receive 10 per cent of its par 
value and gold. Carranza then announced that the government 
was issuing a new kind of paper money, to be known as 'infalsi- 
ficables,' 'uncounterfitables,' and that this new money would 
be worth ten times the value of the old money. For a few days 
these 'infalsificables' kept up a fair exchange value, but then hit 
the toboggan. In October, 1916, their value was so low that it 
required a bale of it to pay for rolls and coffee. A new decree 
was then issued, taking effect November 1, to the effect that all 
payments must be in coin. No provision whatever was made 
for the ultimate redemption of 'infalsificables,' which arc called 
in Vera Cruz 'infallibles, or 'submarinos' — the latter name be- 
cause they went down so rapidly. 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 287 

"I know some speculators who bought up immense sums of 
this paper money, paying perhaps at the rate of 1,000 to 1, 
down to 1,500 to 1 for it, in real money, with the idea that some 
day it might be redeemed. I do not know what the move of 
the government in making the extra 100 per cent tax payable 
in 'infalsificables' was for, but it is possible that in this manner 
they expect to retire the issue, and it is the idea of some people 
that it was to enable speculators to unload at a big profit. 
Naturally this paper money took a big leap upward the moment 
this decree became known, for people doing business who have 
none on hand must acquire it in order to pay export taxes, 
stamp tax and so forth. 

Sincerely yours, 



From another man I received a letter that ended by saying: 

"Everything here is going up in value till I do not see how 
the poor are going to live. It is a great deal higher here than in 
the United States or any other country so far as I can learn. 
Taxes, rents and the actual necessities of life are the main things 
affected. ' ' 



THE REVOLUTION HABIT 



REVOLUTION is the Mexican's pastime and profession. 
He believes in blood and bullets and not ballots and 
brains. It is a bad habit and needs the sword 's surgical 
treatment to be eradicated. Life to him is a melo- 
drama with stage settings of mountains, volcanoes, forests, 
fruits and flowers. Its a real tragedy, though to us it look^ 
like opera bouffe. 

Patriotism, what crimes are committed in thy name! In 
Mexico, more than anywhere else, are realized Dr. Johnson's 
words, "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel," and the 
remark of Horace Walpole that "Every man has his price." 
With the idea of self and not service, of pelf and not patriotism, 
of gold and not good government, men plot instead of plant 



288 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

and raise more revolutions than crops. I\Ian'B chief ambition is 
to be a revolutionist, and like a child, to play bandit. 

The recipe for making a Mexican revolutSonist is little 
money, much discontent, a mouthful of lies and big words, a 
brain with few ideas, ears full of rumor, two hands full of 
cruelty, two pockets full of graft, one heart of hate, plenty of 
gold braid, lace and brass buttons, a rifle that shoots and a 
machete that cuts, and boots and spurs to walk over law and 
ride everyone who can be bridled and saddled. 

The revolutionist needs no uniform and no uniform plan of 
attack. He aims to get his own clothing, food and guns. The 
freedom he fights for is the liberty to fill his pocket. He is an 
artist in intrigue and assassination. The government is a ques- 
tion of "ins" and "outs," a new party to get in and send the 
other out to jail and torture. Revolutions are easy to start but 
hard to stop. The people get the habit. There are so many 
revolutions here to a minute and simply indicate the movement 
of the wheels in the natives' heads and hearts. Revolution is a 
sudden, ^^olent and fatal change in the health of the body 
politic brought about by internal causes. It is estimated that in 
106 3'ears there have been only 41 years of peace. Revolutions 
have risen from three causes, not from popular but personal 
impulse, because the people were always irresolute in principle, 
and because they were fickle in conduct. The IMexicans are for 
themselves and not the nation. They are constitutionally lawless 
and hate any constitution. Revolution is the ideal of the idle. 
As a rule Latin nations are "machi "nations. 

The revolutionist is a son of a gun, always shooting off his 
mouth or pistol. Presidents and leaders are elevated thieves 
and cutthroats whose high office is built on the bones of the 
dead and the destitute. Thieving is a profession, there is more 
in foraging than farming. The sport here is to hunt bandits, as 
lions and tigers are hunted in Africa and India. These revolu- 
tionary scraps are so numerous that Clio's history clerks work 
overtime trying to record them. ]\Iany of them are so small 
that they are not worth a big type headline or even a footnote 
on the page of history. 

The Mexican revolutionary enfant terrible should be set up 
in a high-chair or shut up in a nursery or kindergarten. A good 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 289 

cure would be to make him go to school, teach him the Ten Com- 
mandments and give him a periodic diplomatic spanking^. 



MEXICAN BEATITUDES 



THE Mexican version and perversion of our Lord's 
Beatitudes is as follows: 

Blessed are the rich for theirs are the haciendas 
and mines. 

Blessed are they that revel, for they shall be full of pluque 
and mescal. 

Blessed are the proud, for they shall inherit the envy of the 
poor. 

Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after wickedness, for 
they shall be kept busy. 

Blessed are the merciless, for they shall obtain power. 
Blessed are the impure in heart, for they shall wrong virtue. 
Blessed are the war-makers, for they shall be called political 
heroes. 

Blessed are they which do persecute and torture, for theirs 
is the kingdom or republic of Mexico. 

Blessed are they who revile, persecute and say all manner of 
evil falsely against the gringo American, for great is their re- 
ward in the Mexican press and government. 



"DAMN THE GRINGO" 



MEXICANS love to hate us. The sight of a gringo is 
the occasion for derision and profanity. In Mexico City 
I saw the George Washington statue which was las- 
soed, pulled from its base and dragged in the street. 
George had his arm broken in the scuffle. Our flag has often 
been torn down, trampled on and subjected to unspeakable filth 
and outrage. Papers publish insulting cartoons and ribald 
rhymes against Uncle Sam, the American government and citi- 
zens. 



290 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

Mexicans have seen Americans killed, abused and worse. 
They have no respect for a government which permits such 
things. They think such a government must be weak. Hun- 
dreds of our citizens have been killed in Mexico, soldiers am- 
bushed, women dishonored, children mutilated and starved, prop- 
erty stolen, our government cursed and citizens forced to go to 
British consuls and ships for protection. What have we done? 
Looked on, walked in and walked out again without insisting on 
the treaty rights that American life and property should be 
respected and protected. 

Lord, how long will this continue? Until after the Euro- 
pean war, when, if there is anything left of England and Ger- 
many, they will go down into Mexico and demand reparation 
for loss of life and property inflicted on them under cover of 
the ]\Ionroe Doctrine. If directly or indirectly in the future 
America cannot bring law, order, peace and justice to Mexico, 
let some other country go in and protect their citizens and 
interests there or anywhere else in Latin America. 

To show how Mexico likes us, here is a love-letter I recently 
received from Miss Sofia G of ]\Iexico City : 

"Enclosed find the first page of a Mexican paper in which 
appear some paragraphs reprinted written by you. Your article 
has roused my indignation to such a pitch that I do not hesitate 
to send you these lines, though I am a woman, with my most 
deep execration. There may be dirt, degeneracy, etc., here — 
but are we asking for anything? All of you Yankees in your 
heart despise us and we as fervently hate you all." 

Mexicans have hated us since 1847 and if they pretend to 
love us it is for financial and political reasons. Their favorite 
cries are, ** Mexico for the Mexicans" and "Down with the 
Gringoes. " The greaser despises the gringo because he will not 
think, say and do as the j\Iexican wishes ; because of our Mexican 
policy ; on account of our intriguing diplomats ; and because we 
won't be Mexicanized. 

The greasers hate us and call us the "Colossus of the 
North," with an emphasis of revenge that is historical, religious, 
racial and economic. A poetic ^Mexican once expressed his hate 
of us as follows: "It would put joy into the supreme passion of 



1 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 291 

rape, fire into the flames of arson, virtue in robbery, a crown of 
glory on death and defeat at war with you." 

"What the Greaser government thinks of the Gringo govern- 
ment is easily learned from the daily press. I saw a cartoon of 
President Wilson saddled on Uncle Sam's back. He was holding 
a whip in his hand and driving him on hands and knees over 
cactus beds. Underneath was this inscription, "Tio Sam — God- 
dem yo creia que eran rosas." 

The following expression of Mexican love for Uncle Sam, 
voiced in a Mexican newspaper, is thus literally translated : 

"Libidinous old man, with Judas-like goat whiskers, 
Thou of the wrinkled face, mottled with age ! 
Stinking satyr, a bastard and vile fruit 
Of the insane genesis (offspring) of a thief and harpy! 

Thou hast, of world-thieving, the leadership, 

Because thy reptile stomach swalloweth nations, 

And thou, who useth a frock coat, robbest even the stars! 

Of the shameless of mythology, thou art the god! 

Devour thou my apostrophes, '"'O my loathsome Uncle," 

Offshoot of a d b and a he- goat, 

A phenomenon which affronts nature! 

In all terrestrial space, "0 unlearned lout," 

Thy dishonorable avarice will set back the centuries ! 

Flinty-hearted with dollars, incubus of metal money!" 



WHY NOT? 

I INGE Mexico has been so "friendly" to the United 
States the last three years, and merely murdered, raped 
and robbed Americans, I am not surprised that the 
present "uplift" administration is disposed to "lift" 
the embargo on ammunition and in gratitude grant Mexico a 
large loan of money. Recently 2,700,000 rounds of ammunition 




292 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

Were sent Carranza after they liad been kept in a Texas ware- 
house for two years. Perhaps the First Chief may not receive 
it, as the wily Villa may hold up the train and intercept it. 
Possibly, as on other occasions, Carranza 's own generals may 
hold it up for themselves and trade it for foodstuffs to the very 
rebels they pretend to be hunting. But of course, while it is 
wrong to give American citizens passports and protection in 
Mexico, it is all right to send Mexicans ammunition vv^ith which 
to kill our citizens down there. Let us send all the powder and 
bullets we possibly can for then ]\Iexico may accomplish her tw'o 
long cherished dreams — to invade, conquer and include within 
her fold Texas, Arizona and New IMexico ; and to go South and 
grab little Guatemala whom she has always had a grudge against 
and has been trying to kidnap. 



MUZZLED 



EM. Newman, my lecture friend and globe-trotter, told 
me that when he was in Santiago, Chile, the officials 
said if they caught me there again they would hang me 
to the first telegraph pole between the depot and the 
hotel. He asked them whether I had burned the town, robbed 
the bank, murdered a citizen or eloped with a man's wife or 
daughter, to which they answered no, as far as they knew, none 
of these things. Pressed further for a reason, for this charac- 
teristic Chilean threat, they replied that he had said something 
in his book *'To Hell and Back," they didn't like. Newman 
asked them whether it was true or false and they replied that it 

was true, but he had no d business to say it. "While I am 

sorr}'- to have offended my South American friends, I can only 
reply that I did what any other minister must do if he is a min- 
ister — tell the truth. 

An American, who saw on© of my illustrated articles on 
Mexico, wrote to me as follows: "I know something of the con- 
ditions in ^Mexico. I want to commend you for this article. I 
have thought of having it framed and sent to our representatives 
in Washington. IvOt them hang it up in the Capitol. Surely the 
"humanitarian" impulse so often referred to by the admini- 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 293 

stration, the "higher vision," and our "plain duty to preserve 
sacredly the rights of our citizens" should appeal to the Presi- 
dent and even the politicians in Congress. ' ' 

The newspaper interviews I gave, and illustrated articles I 
wrote for some leading American newspapers, on my impressions 
of Mexico, were reproduced in the principal Mexican papers. 
Readers of these papers have written me personal letters calling 
me as many bad names as there are letters in the alphabet, and 
saying they would kill me if I entered their country again. 
Mexican editorials and articles have heaped vitriolic vitupera- 
tion and vilification on my head. Neither class of writers de- 
nied that I told the truth, but said it was "awful" (malo) for 
a minister of the Gospel to say such things and un-Christ-like. I 
wonder if they ever read the Saviour's words, "Woe unto you, 
scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! — ^Ye serpents, ye generation of 
vipers ! — How can ye escape the damnation of hell ? ' ' 

My accusers remind me of people who think it's worse for 
the clergyman to refer to wrong than it is for them to commit it 

Today we have doctors of divinity whose divinity should be 
doctored, and dudes, dubs and doctrinaires in the pulpit, who, 
instead of startling and shaming their sinful congregation, put 
them to sleep with lullaby hymns and soporific sermons. 

The Bible words, "foolishness of preaching," do not mean 
fool preachers. The preacher is a light to brighten, a trumpet 
to sound, and a sword to smite. The place for low brows, weak 
wills, small lungs, shrivelled souls and cowardice is not the 
church but the cemetery and Congressional Halls at Washington, 

According to polite Washington officials and Mexican stand- 
ards some of the Bible heroes were reverend rowdies and shock- 
ingly unmannered. Moses looked Pharaoh in the eye, demanded 
Israel's freedom and got it. Nathan poked his finger in David's 
face, called him an adulterer and murderer. Elijah hurled hig 
words of sarcasm and scorn until the priests of Baal were burned 
to a cinder. Peter, on the Day of Pentecost, cut the Jews to 
the heart, charging them with Christ's crucifixion. On Mars 
Hill Paul grilled the cultured, Christless Greeks. Isn't it 
shameful ! 

The minister is to pay no attention to the squatter claims of 
any press, preacher or politician who would muzzle him on any 
of the Ten Commandments, in the light of the Mountain Ser- 




294 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

mon. To the demand, "^lind your own business," let the min- 
ister reply, "I do, for Ilim who said, 'Wist ye not that I must be 
about my father 's business ? ' " 

Let clerical, autocratic Europe and her mouthpieces in Latin 
America wear muzzles, but it is the glory of Americanism to take 
orders direct from God and his Word and express them in free 
thought and speech, according to the dictates of conscience. 



MORRILLISMS ON MEXICO 

HE following are some of the writer's detached thoughts 
on Mexico, which he hopes may be attached to the read- 
er's mind. 



No one believes the truth about Mexico. If Gabriel himself 
made a tour of the country some people would doubt his in- 
telligence or veracity. 

Dynamite is the bandit's expression of civilization, and the 
expert who can handle it is more venerated than a college pro- 
fessor. 

Killing is so common that it is as much a topic of polite con- 
versation as the weather. 

It would be sad, yet not so bad, if ]\Iexicans devoted their 
time, ammunition and aim in killing each other and not Ameri- 
cans. 

The stories of horrible bandit savagery make your hair stand 
on end and your flesh creep. 

The illiterate Mexican is not able to appreciate diplomatic 
letters from Washington. The only thing he can understand is 
a doubled fist and a big boot. 

The real gulf between the U. S. and Mexico is not an expanse 
of water but of mentality. 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 295 

The lazy Mexican would make an admirable model to rival 
Leighton 's * ' Sluggard. ' ' 

The heat prickles you like a Nessus shirt and sweats you 
worse than a Turkish bath-towel. 

No matter what the bribe is, it will not hurt or injure the 
receiver unless it is too small. 

The Mexican Trinity consists of an army, church and poli- 
ticians. 

The most ravenous Indian appetite can be satisfied with cof- 
fee, peppers and cigarets. 

The natives are willing to drink anything but the stimulat- 
ing wine of progress. 

Mexico trains creep along and make you feel very creepy. 

A plaza pleasure is to have a bootblack shine your shoes and 
sit in the sunshine. 

Exaggeration? No amount of words in any language can 
describe the wreck and ruin prevailing. 

Mexicans hate the Chinese or any one else who wants to work. 

Our government accused Huerta of Madero's murder and then 
acknowledged a man who killed as many more as Saul did than 
David. 

The "pop" one finds on the train is not so much booze "fizz'* 
as bullet "whizz." 

Rebellion in Mexico stands for profit and not for patriotism. 

In printer's parlance the dirty Mexican is bold, black-face 
type. He knows little of printer's type but more of the re- 
version of type to barbarism. 



296 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

The scenery is as savage as the people. 

The train time-table makes no allowance for broken down en- 
gines or bandit skirmishes. 

The ^Mexican's ideal is to look, loaf, lounge, gad, guzzle and 
gossip. 

In Mexico you will always find bad rumors on the street and 
bad roomers in the hotels. 

The streets here give evidence of having been swept more 
by bullets than by brooms. 

. In the chilly night the Cinco de May, Fifth of May Street, 
felt like the first of December. 

In this dogmatic, churchly country the agnostic answer to 
most questions is, Quien sabe? Who knows? 

Many of the virgins in Mexico are plaster, and they have 
fallen. 

Spanish salvation meant Aztec damnation. 

The Spaniards who overran Mexico were worse than the ten 
plagues of Egypt. 

Mexico has always! been a "promised" land to the peon, but 
up to date he hasn't received much of it. 

When Mexico has more of instruction she will have less of 
destruction. 

A liar doesn't recognize the truth when he sees or hears it. 

The Devil in Mexico never takes a vacation. 

I went to Mexico, not as a gold-seeker, but as a truth-seeker. 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 297 

To write and tell the truth about Mexico is to be put in the 
Munchausen class. 

Many Mexicans are descended from the Spaniards and have 
been descending ever since. 

The Mexican Indian home is a dirty, dismal den of discom- 
fort, 

Yucatan rivers flow underground. Maybe to find refuge from 
the heat. 

The loud dresser in Merida is called "poisonous." 

The remains of the dead cities of Yucatan cause more specu- 
lation than the bones of a mastodon. 

There is much monumental ignorance displayed about the 
ancient monuments of Yucatan. 

Yucatan is as green and flat as a billiard table, but the Mayas 
built a high civilization on it. 

If you play on the ''organ" cactus you will hear loud, shrill 
tones. 

Miners in Mexico are like Moses and view the landscape 
"ore." 

The pulque plant looks as if it were drunk on its own juice. 

Mexico is near us in boundary, we are bound to be her big 
brother and protect her against home and foreisrn enemies if 
we have to fight for it. "We are willing to see that she gets a 
square deal of rule through some Diaz or Juarez, who can do 
and dictate discreetly if not divinely, and do the best he can 
as sooQ as he can for all the Mexican people and for Americans 
who are in Mexico. 

Liberty is a plant that can only thrive in the light of edu- 
cation and not in the night of ignorance. 



298 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

Mexico always has an open season for vaudeville villains. 

In his last days Porfirio Diaz worried more over his toothache 
than the headache, heartache and backache of his subjects. 

It was the rain drops from heaven that dispersed a mob of 
75,000 from the plaza, and not the iron rain from the cannon on 
the cathedral and palace. 

Mexico is the land of freedom and privilege for the few and 
not the multitude. 

Bigotry is a bloodhound that the church always lets loose on 
the heterodox. 

Yucatan is no longer a black hole of slavery and superstition. 

Eorresco refer ens. Carranza's Constitutional troops were a 
horde of Hyena Huns who turned Mexico City into a hell of po- 
litical, economical and moral horror. 

The bandit is not the only danger along the railroad. When 
the passenger gets off at a station and walks along by the car, 
he is liable to be hit with slops, bones, orange peels, corn and ta- 
male wrappers, heedless expectorations and — so forth. 

However uncertain mail is to an American resident in Mexi- 
co, he is sure of blackmail. 

The serpent of the Inquisition has been driven out ; its fangs 
are no longer in the heart* of the people. 

Some churches are neither necessary nor useful. 

In many ways the Aztecs were cultured, peaceful and humane 
compared with their Spanish conquerors. 

The church in Mexico has been a parasite that sucked the 
blood and money of her worshippers. 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 299 

Mexicans would rather steal than study. 

To millions Mexico has been an open door to hell. 

You don't have to go to the Public Library to find the "Mid- 
dle Ages ; * ' just take a trip to Mexico. 

The Spaniards are graduates in graft. 

General Demoralization has led most of the Mexican forces. 

Men may come and men may go, but the church plots go on 
forever. It oils its wheels with the flesh and blood of the people. 

Mexico's political tyranny has been sharper than the spines 
of her cactus. 

The average character of the Mexican is weak, wanton and 
wicked. 

It is past Spanish "rule" that measures present Mexico's 
bloody bigotry. 

Mexico's ship of state has been steered by pirates and 
wrecked. 

Selfish, private interest has always thrown a monkey-wrench 
into the machinery of public progress. 

What I saw in Mexico proves it to be rotten in body, mind 
and soul. If she does not confess and forsake her sins of bigotry, 
beastliness, booze, bullfighting, brutality and bandit warfare, 
Uncle Sam ought to unite with England and Germany after the 
war and wipe her off the map, or do it alone, although all Mexi- 
co was, is and has isn't worth the life of one good American citi- 
zen. 

A misplaced crucifix always gets the people in a fix. 

The iron hand of P. Diaz grew rusty with age. 



300 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

Mexico is a land of golden opportunities — especially for the 
bandit, boodler, beggar and exploiter. 

The Spanish missionaries deformed the Aztecs more than they 
reformed them. 

Americans are transported with rage at the way their goods 
are transported from coast to interior. 

So many Mexicans are cross-eyed that it may account for their 
crooked course of conduct in life. 

Mexico is the wliite elephant of the Western Continent. 

Church catechism in ]\rexico has produced governmental 
cataclysm. 

The picture of Mexico has more dark shadow than high light. 

Alack! I\Iexico has a lack of legitimacy, literacy and honesty. 

The word Spanish is a synonym for exploration and exploi- 
tation. 

The resources of Mexico include almost everything but civi- 
lization. 

Mexico's fires of freedom are usually put out with blood. 

Mexican beggars smell as if they had accompanied Valjean 
through the Paris sewer. 

The imaginative and inventive faculties of most Mexicans are 
spent in fabricating falsehoods. 

Mexico is not the Promised Land, flowing with milk and 
honey, but with blood and poison. 

Our policy in ;^^exico would furnish plenty of copy for a new 
"Comedy of Errors." 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 301 

The Yucatecan would rather raise hemp than be raised by it. 

Adam was made in the divine image out of moist clay. The 
average Mexican looks like the devil, and as if made out of dirt 
with no water in it. 

The starving natives want "pan" (bread) and not panics. 

Cortez gave the Aztecs groans in exchange for their gold. 

In Mexico City it is more than the altitude that puts the 
American under a nervous strain and a "high" tension. 

The setiorita's pastime is to look in the mirror, out of the win- 
dow and count her beads and her love-affairs. 

The sun-loving lizard Mexican sits in the plaza, sips chocolate 
or coffee, and gossips of girls, revolution, bandits and hangings. 

Much Mexican food is more mysterious than a magazine 
"cereal," and more dangers lurk mthin it than are found on a 
battlefield. 

The poor Mexican is a spendthrift in words, and wealth, if 
he has any. 

Revolutions are a loss to the people and a gain to the war- 
chiefs. 

Corruption here is a compliment and not a censure. A man 
feels flattered when called a thief, liar and adulterer. 

The cash register is the only invention that enables the mer- 
chant to register any cash in his bank. 

Porfirio Diaz was Mexico's biggest and best policeman. 

Robbery is the custom of the country. 

Mexico is in its infancy. Childhood always needs spanking. 



302 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

It's an unproved and open question to some that Huerta 
killed i\Iadero. 

To read Mexican history makes one mad, crazy or cynicaL 

lyrexieans began to hate the U. S. in 1847 and have continued 
to ever since. 

The spirit of Nero, Attila, Judas and Caligula have entered 
the soul and dictated to most of Mexico's dictators. 

Even in theft the people are polite, and with a "con per- 
misso" relieve you of what they want whether you want them 
to or not. 

The sufferings of our Americans in Mexico did but harden 
the heart of our Washington Pharaohs. 

Today Mexico has piffling, pilfering politicians instead of 
heroic patriots like Hidalgo, Morelos, Guerero and Diaz. 

It is a question whether the divine injunction, "love your 
enemies" refers to Carranza in his treatment of Americans. When 
Mexico robs America of life and money and then begs for a mil- 
lion dollar loan, I recall another Scripture, "Cast not your pearls 
before swine." What Mexico needs is not a loan, but a licking. 

Mexico needs no "boom" of cannon, but an industrial 
"boom" and one of education and honesty. 

All Mexico needs is a square deal, good work and wages, fair 

and honest rulers, religious freedom, just taxation, honest courts, 
sincere and sympathetic advisers. 

It is all right to do wrong but criminal to be caught. 

Famine and disease are the camp-followers of the bandit 
bands. 

There is no safety first or last for Americans or foreigners. 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 303 

The half-castes have the whole vices and not the virtues of 
the Spanish or Indians. They are physical and moral cowards. 

The poor peon has been priest-juggled and pulque-jagged. 

The high standard of orthodoxy has been to be able to neither 
read nor write. 

Mexico's history is in two volumes — Clerical and Military 
despotism. It is printed in blood red letters and bound in 
boards of bigotry. 

Church decorations are more tawdry than ten-cent movie 
houses. 

The Mexican question is a poser. The nation loves to pose, 
impose and depose, and at the present rate will soon decompose. 

Mexican government is in name and not nature ; m show and 
not substance ; is a trapping and not a thing. 

To some, the best thing in Orizaba was the beer, and the best 
thing about it was the scenery. 

The human animals in Mexico need another Seton Thompson 
to classify them. 

Street markets are unsanitary. One look at the meat makes 
you a vegetarian; a look at the vegetables makes you wish you 
could live on air plants. 

The press is mare depressing than impressing. 

Mexican soldiers soldier. They love dress parade, to carry 
a gun and show off. 

The Mexican resists everything but temptation. 

The outlaw politely begs your pardon as he proceeds to tor- 
ture and kill you. Many of the natives and their animals look 



B04 THE DEML IN MEXICO 

as if their Hoover diet were sage-brush, cactus, tin-cans and vol- 
canic rocii. 

The native is a helpless idiot who doesn't know enough to 
steal. They would rather steal ten cents than earn a dollar. 

Latins like more pay for less work. 

Many natives are naturally good and would be very much 
better if outsiders left their laud and their women alone. 

What's the matter with Mexico? Everything. 

The ^Mexican army can't keep order within or on the border. 

Three hard nuts to crack : Shall we annex Mexico : sliall we 
send a police force to maintain order ; shall we grab the customs 
and make her pay damages? 

Many Mexican patriots oppose nothing but Progress. 

Mexico's gallery of celebrities is a Rogues' Gallery of statu- 
esque and picturesque assassins and desperadoes. 

Shams and shambles are Mexican shibboleths. 

Beware of the frijole-eating orator and his gas-bombs of 
speech. 

Chief Carranza is editor-in-chief of all the papers. 

^lexican natives have no views but those of the scenery, and 
no convictions but jail ones. 

^lake the Mexican who insults the Stars and Stripes wear 
stripes and "see stars." 

Mexican characteristics include neither cleanliness nor god- 
liness. The people are dirty, cruel, treacherous, brutal and low- 
lived. 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 305 

Schools are shallow. Blind teachers lead the blind. 

Many Mexican hotels give you a cell for a bedroom and you 
feel sold when you pay for it. 

Mexicans think more of the word "gory" than glory, and 
of treason than truth. 

Nothing but a divine alchemy can change a clay-mud Mexi- 
can into a beatific angel, 

Mexico is the worst country I have visited South of Alaska 
and North of Patagonia. 

Pulque softens the brain and hardens the heart; paralyzes 
the nerves and upsets the stomach. 

''Cinco de Moya," May 5th, was ''anti-foreigiier's day," be- 
cause Zaragossa whipped the French in Puebla May 5th, 1862. 
Now every day in Mexico is anti-American and pro-German day. 

Mexican education is not of the modem " U " or college type. 

Carranza's army is mainly made up of political scum and 
revolutionary riff-raff. 

It is better to enforce peace than to go to pieces. 

It is time for our government to put up this sign on the bor- 
der: "Don't dump and pipe Mexican refuse and swill on our 
lot," 

In the Spanish language there is no such word as home. 
"Casa," house, is the substitute. 

Mexico is a land of love, lace and lice, flowers, fights and fleas. 

The thief is familiar with pulque bar and prison bolt. 

Don't hurry — no one expects you to keep your appointment. 



306 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

"Six days shalt thou raise the devil and on the seventh con- 
fess and consecrate thyself that thou mayest do worse than 
ever," is Mexico's only commandment that isn't broken. 

At Easter time it has been a Mexican practice to explode a 
firecracker effigy of Judas. Alas, 'twas ever thus ! A prophet is 
without honor in his own country. Judas, the archetype of 
treachery, lying and theft, is their patron saint. 

The peon isn't a deep thinker but he thinks he knows when 
he's wronged. 

If we should build a bridge of Justice and Honesty between 
U. S. and Mexico the bandits would blow it up. 

Yucatan is a stony desert where the enterprising native has 
built a Bethel bridge and sisal rope ladder to prosperity. 

Mexican women are Amazons. They are always in the fight 
and go before and after the soldiers. 

The bandit with his dynamite is a sort of land submarine 
every Mexican train must look out for. 

The Mexican government is a house divided against itself 
and waiting for another revolution. 

Carranza soldiers are afraid to fight the bandits, but come 
down to a town after the bandits have left and hang up inno- 
cent citizens. 

Carranza is a bluffer, a buffer, a juggler and a go-between. 

The end of a bandit is generally the end of a rope. 

Villa may be bloody and brutal but that is why he is the 
people's choice and national hero. To the ^foxican mind there is 
DO fiin without blond. The hull kills the horse, the man kills 
the bull, and the bandit kills the man. 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 307 

The East St. Louis atrocity was infamous and Mexico de- 
lights in our shame, but that one bloody thing is what she does 
all the time. 

The same party policy that leaves the lives and property 
of American citizens in Mexico unprotected and unavenged, 
permits lawless whites in East St. Louis to murder innocent 
negroes and burn their homes, with no official reprimand from 
"Washington or suggestion of sincere regret or reparation. 
Some day in God's providence right shall make might and 
justice shall prevail. 

Mexico consists politically of 27 states, most of which are in a 
state of revolution. 

Quintana Roo is Yucatan's woodshed near British Honduras. 
Here wild Indian tribes are said to cut wood and chop off visi- 
tors' heads. 

Yucatan was discovered in 1517 by the slave-hunter, Cordova, 
and there has been slavery there ever since. 

Mexico has been a slave-pen, a torture-chamber, a treasure- 
house and a slaughter-house. 

An open Bible always means an open door to any country. In 
Mexico the ''entrance of thy word giveth light." 

The power of the church in the Colonial period, 1644, may be 
learned from the petition of Ayuntamiento of Mexico to Philip 
IV, to put a stop to the founding of religious houses that held 
half the property of the country, to suspend ordination because 
there were 6,000 unemployed priests and to suspend feast days, 
for there were two a week. 

The ''Benefit of Clergy" was all for them and nothing for 
the congregation. The clergy could only be tried by ecclesiastical 
courts where judge and jury were all "brothers, hale fellows well 
met." 



308 TDE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

I found ^rexican cities crowded with people who had sought 
refuge from bandits in the country. 

^rexico's religious forces in 1900 were thus arranged: About 
13,000,000 Roman Catholics, against 51,700 Protestants. Many 
of the Indians called Christian are Pagan. 

Earthquake revolutions overthrow the government and de- 
stroy the people. 

Mexican insects and people are noxious and obnoxious. 

I said on my way to Vera Cruz, when I expected to be 
killed and was making my peace with God, that I would never 
have to pray, God forgive me for Christ's sake for having 
voted the Democratic ticket, for I never committed that sin. 

For three years our government denied the Devil was in 
Mexico, and then Secretary Lansing wrote a note to the IMexi- 
can minister enumerating three years of unhindered, unavenged 
strife, outrage, murder and robbery of Am.erican citizens, which 
made the Devil smile to think that if he was the "father of lies," 
he had many children in Washington. 

The "Boche" and "Greaser" are twin-brothers in crime and 
cruelty. 

Carranza is an absolute autocrat with no limitations except 
to his mental and moral ability. 

We need a world-wide desire of helping humanity and not 
neglecting Americans in nearby Mexico. 

Carranza 's officers bought up our R«d Cross food supplies, 
robbed the poor peons of their crops, sold them and spent the 
money to buy bullets to make dead Americans. 

The Jesuit policy, "The end justifies the means," was used 
as a lever to pry Huerta out of a job, a policy well known to the 
President's secretary, who is a graduate of the Georgetown 
Jesuit College at Washington. 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 309 

On this pa^e is accurately and vividly described all that our 
government did for her outraged American citizens in Mexico— 



310 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

Because Madcro was good, generous, fair and forgiving, hii 
enemies hated, hounded and killed him. 

Under the plea for "public good," which means his private 
gain and grudge, Carranza kills any one who is distasteful to him. 

In the orchestra of nations Mexico plays the "base vile," 
"loot," "liar," "religious svmbols," "devil's horn" and 
"hobo." 

The senorita's life is divided into three parts — love, idleness 
and religion. 

"Wilson doubled up his moral and military fist, hit Huerta an 
uppercut and knocked him down and out. 

Carranza is a Jekyll and Hyde. As Governer of Coahuila 
he did nothing for the uplift of the people — now he leads Mexico 
as a preacher of righteous well-doing. 

The present Washington administration is a "ringer," but 
doesn't wear the jewel of consistency. It recognized the de facto 
government in Peru and threw the de facto government of 
Huerta into the scrap-heap. 

After sleeping in IMexican beds I knew why they called the 
country the land of "unrest." 

i\Iexico is cornucopia-shaped, but the poor peon has never 
yet had a full merry Christmas or corn enough to make his tor- 
tillas. 

Billy Sunday was outdone by the Spanish friars who picked 
up a cross and a bucket of water and converted as many as 20,000 
a day. 

I am not surprised that the favorite operas in ]\rexico are 
founded on murder and adultery, which are the popular pas- 
times. 



I 

I 

J 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 311 

Porfirio Diaz said, "I should like to live fifty years to see the 
result of the seed I have planted." Poor P. D. ! Some seed was 
good and some was bad, and there has been a large crop of 
weeds and poisonous plants. 

Mexico needs money, morals, education, freedom, soap, in- 
dustry and peace. 

The devout found religious reminders between his home and 
his church. Even the streets in Mexico citv bore such names as, 
''Holy Ghost Street," "Street of the Love of God," "Blood of 
Christ Street," "Heart of Jesus Street," "Crown of Thorns 
Street." 

Mexico has many hospitals and she needs them, for there is 
always killing and disease. Hospitals and prisons are ever full. 

In religious times a miner at Guanajuato paved a street for 
sixty yards with silver ingots that the procession might pass over 
on its way to the church where his son was to be christened. 

It is painfully significant that in countries where you find 
more than fifty per cent of illiteracy and illegitimacy the people 
are of good standing in the Roman Catholic church. There are 
over 75 per cent illiterates and illegitimates in Mexico. 

When it comes to facing germs and bacilli, the Mexicans are 
among the bravest in the world. 

Mexico has 500 species of cactus. Pretty much of a bad thing. 

Mexican children are filthy, ignorant and happy. 

Mexicans have a hot time with their sun, wars, peppers, chile 
con carne, etc. 

Many of the peons are half starved and get less to eat than 
a pig. A first-class ox would refuse to be called "brother" to a 
peon. 



312 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

If U. S. kitchens were like the insanitary ones of Mexico 
there would be a million more fatalities yearly. 

Like most everything else in Mexico, the roads are bad. 

The Indian's illiteracy is as great now as when Cortez came 
with Spanish culture four centuries ago. 

"Woe and despair are written on the face of the land and the 
people. 

The altitude is often unjustly blamed for Mexican debt, dis- 
ease and deviltry. 

A bullfight is a game between two-legged brutes and four- 
legged animals. 

The Mexican has a volcanic vocabulary at times. His pro- 
fanity flows fast and foul like a sewer. No matter who is present 
he is obscene, vile and blasphemous as a drunken sailor. Ilis or- 
dinary talk is bad and when he is mad it is awful. 

Mexico's population consists of four-fifths of Indians and 
mixed-blood descendants. Twelve millions of them are starved 
in war times and they are only half-fed in times of peace. They 
are unfit for citizenship. 

The peon is cruel. The same wrath shown him he shows his 
donkey. 

Two-thirds of the population live in adobe huts and the 
only opening is a door. 

Mexico isn't anxious to have her war game cease, for when 
it does, she will be like Othello with "occupation gone." There 
are alwaj's enough bullets and bandits held over to "keep the 
home fires burning." 

Mexico's war cry is not God and home, but "native land." 
The Indians want to farm, but the agrarian question is not the 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 313 

main issue and is simply taken up by a few leaders to incite the 
crowd, foment strife and raise an army. 

Mexicans drink enough pulque to float a battleship. 

The distance from the United States to Mexico City is only 
three days, but several centuries many other ways. 

Many of the Indians are ignorant and idolatrous but hardy, 
hard-working and moral. Indian blood flowed through the veins 
of Juarez the statesman, Morelos the soldier, Altimirano the lit- 
erateur and P. Diaz, the dictator. 

Mexico is a rotten republic, a putrid mass, a stench in the nos- 
tril of nations. Uncle Sam 's sanitary corps at Washington should 
clean up this garbage heap of Mexico at his back door. 

One good thing Carranza did was to send five hundred school 
teachers to the U. S. to study pedagogy. It is claimed there are 
as many schools now as in the time of Diaz and that Yucatan has 
2,400 as against 200 two years ago. 

"Woman in Mexico has no rights, can 't vote, teaches in but few 
schools, is clerk in few offices and her main opportunity is nurs- 
ing at home or in religious orders. 

The greatest sufferers in Mexico are not the begging poor, 
but the middle class who lost their money when metal was sub- 
stituted for paper. 

A neutral Mexico is a German ally. One must be either for 
or against autocracy or democracy, 

Mexico and Germany use similar methods. Their brute force 
philosophy is ''Might makes right." 

Carranza 's Castilian phrases are deceptive. 

Mexico can only be ruled by a "benevolent dictator." 



314 TUE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

Mexico will learn that we can and will fight when we are 
forced to, and that we will win. 

After the European war is over we will want to fight, or have 
to fight Mexico unless our flag is saluted and our government re- 
spected. 

Mexico regarded our heart-felt patience as mental imbecil- 
ity, and our president as an illustration of Mark's Twain's 
hero. "Puddin'head AVilson. " 

America is diplomatically dead and buried in IMexico. Ameri- 
can citizens and flag are insulted and spit on. 

Mexico needs strong men, men strong mentally, physically 
and morally. She needs some money, more character and less 
gambling and drinking. 

The serpent tongue of the church has slandered Masonry, in- 
jured, persecuted and killed it members. Its charges have al- 
ways been made by the Devil, wlio is its prosecuting attorney. 

Mr. H. C. L and his big family have come to ^lexico and the 
question of the hour is how to get money enough to entertain 
him. 

The church in IMexico has made a mess of religion since 1524. 

Mexico's highways are the haunts of the highwayman. 

There is a sad divorce between morality and religion. 

No wonder ^lexico is the enfant terrible of nations when her 
nurses are Superstition and Ferocity. 

The Mexican face is an open book where low appetite is 
written in big, black letters. 

The Diazpotism of Porfirio is better than the carnage of Car- 
ranza. 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 315 

Castelar said, "We know that a democratic state cannot bear 
in its bosom a privileged church. Democracy was born under 
the curse of the church." 



Spain had zeal, energy and consecration, but most of all 
cruelty. She always preferred to sacrifice the spiritual for the 
material, and it was this sordid spirit that fought Holland and 
ruined twelve million of her own best blood. 

Mexico City was founded on a rock island, in a shallow lake, 
because it was easy to defend. It was located by the medicine 
men of the tribe when they found a small eagle sitting on a 
cactus eating a snake. 

Mexico has been feudalistic. Baron land owners have had 
everything and the vassal peons nothing. There were two 
classes, the lords and the slaves. There are million-acre estates 
for which less than 10 cents an acre has been paid. 

It is estimated that nearly 70 per cent of Mexico's natural 
wealth was corralled by international capital, with the govern- 
mental help of Diaz, Huerta and the clericals. 

More than half of the Yucatecans can't speak the Spanish 
language. 

The present evil in Mexico is the church, lack of land, and 
education, and revolution. 

The Gospel is not free in Mexico. The way to heaven is very 
expensive. There is no free press, speech, action or religion. 

A Mexican's action is not the desire to accomplish much but 
to ruin everything. 

The Inquisition was elastic enough to stretch over every case 
of heresy. 



316 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

Mexico's history is founded on layers of rotten policies and 
the garbage cans of religious rubbish. 

Our Yankee word "hurry" is translated in ^Mexico to "poco 
a poco," little by little slowly, and "manana," tomorrow. 

Here is a new Mexican maxim I offer — "Dirty as a Mexican." 

A ]\Iexican's rest and relaxation are taken in murdering one 
another. 

A Mexican can talk for hours and say nothing, rivaling any 

Washington diploinut. He is a brother to Gratiano, who could 
speak an "infinite deal of nothing" and give you a grain of 
wheat in a bushel of chaff. 

i\Iexicans all talk, none listen and there is no great strain on 
the tongue and ear of the participants. The skirmish of polite- 
ness is followed by a forty-two centimetre of bombast. 

The priest carries the collection box in one hand and dam- 
nation in the other. 

Mexican clay is not so much a beautiful vase for the flowers 
of virtue, or statue of character, but a pipe for smoke and a slop- 
jar for refuse. 

Mexican meals do not satisfy but kill your appetite. On the 
menu the names of the food look better than the food itself. 

Polite writers of Mexican history have such a dread of giv- 
ing hard impressions that they make none at all. 

No one yet has written a "good" book on Mexico. It is im- 
possible, the subject is so bad. 

Mexico can't stand without the support of the U. S. 

We want the good vdW of ]\rexico but not at the price of de- 
stroyed American lives and property. 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 317 

At Puebla the bishop was a real Friar Tuck. He preached 
sacrifice to his congregation and had the best to eat and drink. 
The common people got tired of his hypocrisy, invaded his ha- 
cienda, stole his hogs and told him they would no longer tolerate 
him as a land-owner — if he wanted to be a pastor of souls, that 
was different. 

The Indians had land once, they want it now and they won't 
be happy until they get some of it. There will be no peace until 
the land which was stolen by the church is returned to the peon. 

"We know what we think of Carranza ; this is what he and his 
generals think of us. Carranza says, "Wilson has not kept faith 
with Mexico." Obregon, "Wilson makes too many declarations 
which have no facts behind them." Gonzales, "Wilson's policy 
is not clear, not frank, not clean. ' ' 

To the question, "Are things as bad in Mexico as painted?" 
I answer, "No — worse." 

Disorder is Mexico's first law and there has been so much of 
it in seven years that there are no statistics which can estimate it. 

The bright side of Mexico is dark compared with other coun- 
tries. 

Mexico is financially bankrupt, needs a loan, but capital will 
not lend without good security. 

Turkey is the sick man of Europe and Mexico is the sick 
man of America. He has a low pulse and needs a Bible heart 
tonic. 

Mexico needs intervention and an American protectorate. 

"Semana Santa," Holy Week, has always been an unholy 
week in Mexico. Formerly in the Alameda there were market 
booths where bloody and ugly images were for sale. Not so now. 

Humboldt called Mexico the "treasure-house of the world," 
and like other vaults it has been broken into and looted. There 



318 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

are millions of acres of fertile soil untouched and only a small 
fraction of the oil deposits have been developed. 

Churches are now robbed of their art and jevrels by men who 
pretend to worship and kneel but steal. It has been recently re- 
ported that in I\Iexico City churches, diamonds and pearls have 
been taken from the neck of the Virgin. 

For years Yucatan has been held in the clutches of a three- 
headed monster — an established church, a landed aristocracy and 
a U. S. industrial trust. Alvarado came with his little sword and 
chopped off all three heads at a blow. 

Mexico does not want to persecute the church but insists 
on driving out the politicians. 

The spirit of the Inquisition showed itself as late as 1914 
when it hunted and arrested those who threw off clerical rule, 
put them in stocks and whipped them, and threatened the peons 
with hell torments hereafter if they left their masters. 

Mexico will never be free until reactionary clericals are cut 
out root and branch from its political system. 

Here-to-fore priests were immune in INIexico and they could 
rob, murder, slander and seduce, and were protected by the 
church from civil prosecution. 

The Jesuits came to Mexico from Europe and united with the 
rich against the poor. 

The lasting grudge of I\rexico against the church is that it 
always opposed education and progress. 

People are starving in ]\rexico and literally crying, "Give us 
this day our daily bread." 

God is too big to be held in any cathedral of brick and mor- 
tar. His spirit is everywhere and by anybody anywhere may be 
worshipped. 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 319 

The "cientificos" were the parasites and grafters who grew 
up under Diaz, living on thievings from the people, and who, 
under the guise of patriotism, picked the pockets of the natives. 
Finally they were the means of Porfirio 's downfall. 

The administration swallowed everything the Mexican gov- 
ernment told it and then decided to "Fletcherize" by sending 
Kenry Fletcher as an ambassador to Mexico. 

Mexico has more than four seasons of change. I am telling 
what I saw in Mexico and not what happened there before or 
since I returned. It is quite possible that before this book is 
printed Carranza may be killed, another revolution be in full 
blast and Mexico become a seething cauldron of plot and counter- 
plot. 

Intervention eventually, why not now? 

In Mexico we dared not use the word "intervention," but 
always spoke of it as the ''big I." To the question, who wants 
it, with its sympathy, ability and consistency, the reply is, the 
greater per cent of the down-trodden Indians. 

P. Diaz liked the foreigner ; Carranza hates him. 

There are no Diaz ' ' cientificos, ' ' but there are many Carranza 
grafters. 

"We can't deal with Mexico on the basis of honor, for she is 
the most dishonorable of nations. 

"We couldn't give Huerta our "moral support," how then 
can we give it to Carranza ? 

The hypocrisy of Mexican diplomacy is enough to make a 
corpse get up and smile. 

The Pilgrim fathers brought a cargo of implements of toil 
to till the soil. The Spaniards went to Mexico with implements 
of torture to kill. 



320 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

Rosaries and crosses were piled on the Indians like so many 
spiritual chains and weights. 

Until recently the clergy o^vned 10 per cent of the area of 
the country, the principal tenements and robbed the peons for 
rent. 

A revolutionist thinks he is consistent when he pins the imago 
of the saint and virgin to his hat and enters the church to loot it 
and drive out its priests. 

Ninety years ago the clergy owned 80 per cent of ^lexico's 
wealth and territory. It was banker and the peons couldn't even 
get a candle unless they paid the church for it. 

To tell the truth about Mexico is to sign your death warrant, 
hire the undertaker, buy a gun and pick out your tombstone — 
if you ever go back to Mexico. 

The Mexican race has 125 tribes and speaks 50 dialects. 
There are three classes: first, the educated robbers, second, the 
poor and proud Mestizos, and third, the ignorant, enslaved In- 
dians. 

In 1910 it was estimated that there were 60 per cent Indians, 
30 of the mixed class and 10 Spanish. 

It isn't so much the image of God as the hoof of Satan that 
is stamped in Mexican human clay. 

Mexicans are easily led and misled to love or laugh, to hate 
or to steal. It is a short step from flowers, music and love of chil- 
dren to the awful Decena tragedy in 1913, when they made 
sport of the burning bodies in the plaza and streets of Mexico 
City. 

Huerta and his press, traitors and grafters, declared the 
Americans were killing and outraging women and carrying ba- 
bies around the streets on the point of the sword. 

D stands for Diaz, the de.«pot and his Draconian laws, but 
also for deliverance of debt, distrust and disorder. 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 321 



Diaz failed in many ways. There was no fairness of election 
and he provided no land for the poor, yet he gave Mexico a place 
in the sun and made law, industry and commerce possible. He 
got stuck on the "land" bar and his ship could go no further. 

Deliverance at Vera Cruz meant ''deliver up" or I'll shoot 
yon, and that is always the motto of Carranza's looting gang. 
The big chief never knew, or has forgotten, Juarez' motto, "Re- 
spect for the rights of others is peace." 

We sent our soldiers to Mexico and millions of munitions 
to Vera Cruz to kill them. Though we knew Mexico's feeling 
of hostility and Carranza's hate, we gave them powder to blow 
us up and, doing this, were guilty of the shame and sin of adding 
oil to the flames. 

Mexico needs books more than bayonets and a better acquaint- 
ance with geography than generals. "Intervention," with a 
non-sectarian school, such as the Roberts College, which I visited 
in Constantinople, and conducted in a way to disarm religious 
and political suspicion, would be of great and lasting help, like 
that of our teachers in Cuba, Philippines and Porto Rico. 

Americans know next to nothing of Mexico's real condition. 
I was invited to call on General Pablo Gonzales at Tacubaya, but 
feared if he ever cornered "L" and me in his "concentration" 
camp, with the natives of the rural districts of certain states, we 
would be in a Cuban Weyler condition, for in these camps hun- 
dreds die of negligence, hunger and typhus fever. 

Warnings of Mexican outlawrj' sent our government are dis- 
credited, are called "prejudiced," "commercial jealousy," 
and "wholly without foundation and fact." High government 
officials act like an ostrich and close their eyes to unpleasant facts. 

Mexicans'think more of the Germans since they are willing to 
fall in with their customs and practices, while we Americans re- 
fuse to be Mexicanized. 



322 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

From Cortez to Carranza, Mexico has always been under & 
blood and iron rule. 

Carranza is no better than any of his predecessor murderers. 
This human cuttlefish hides under the word "Constitutionalism," 
which he has secreted. 

"We had no right to eradicate a so-called bad government 
under Huerta, unless we were able to substitute a good one under 
Carranza, who of the two evils is the greater. 

No civilized nation but America has ever refused to protect 
its citizens. 

We don't want to annex or Americanize I\Iexico, but simply 
to have and hold a military protectorate there for their and our 
mutual good. 

America must conquer Mexican hate, compromise is impos- 
sible. 

"We have been insulted enough in Mexico to clean her up froni 
the Rio Grande to Guatemala. 

From the very beginning Carranza has been a rubber stamp 
as senator and governor. Now he puts on his war boots and 
stamps his iron heel on wealth, honor and the weak. 

Carranza is a godless, ghoulish Goth. Unlike "^^illa, he de- 
stroyed everything he couldn't use or carry along with him. 
Towns, factories, houses and possessions were ruined, not for loot 
or revenge, but simply to impoverish the peons and enforce them 
to enlist under his banner. 

Carranza 's officers bought up all the cattle, com, barley, beans 
and food of the country, sold and shipped it out, leaving the poor 
peons to starve or eat roots and grass. 

A few years ago there were 15.000,000 poor but peaceful 
hard-working, happy peons laboring on their farms. The govern- 



1 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 323 

ment took everything away from them and has driven the men, 
women and children to the city to beg and starve. 

Every Mexican who has wronged an American should be 
pursued, captured and punished. 

America could not be half-slave and free, and no democracy 
can be built or maintained in Mexico so long as half the country 
is anarchistic. 

An American citizen has the same right to claim protection 
in Mexico as in the United States, and the government that will 
not guarantee it is not a good government and should be voted 
out of office. 

It is easy to say "I am an American," at home, but hard 
to feel it unprotected abroad. 

The measure of our duty to Mexico is the golden rule of 
sincere helpfulness. 

The government recognized Carranza and looked to him for 
the protection of Americans. Carranza says he can't do it and 
threatens the United States if we punish the murderer of our 
citizens on his soil. 

We pray Fate will soon write the word "finis" to Mexico's 
murderous history. 

Mexico needs a constructive and not destructive armed inter- 
vention, such as we helpfully instituted at Vera Cruz. 

Mexico has been crucified between the two thieves of priestly 
plotter and political plunderer. 

Mexicans know and feel their helpless misery, but are too 
proud to admit that no one but America can help them. 

It has been estimated that there are 12,000,000 peaceable 
Mexicans, 2,000,000 partly educated and well-meaning, 150,000 



324 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

murderous bandits, 250,000 strong friends of the fighting fac- 
tions, and that the refugees in the U. S., Cuba and Europe rep- 
resent the mind, money and backbone of the nation, 

^lexico needs a president who will be fair and friendly to 
Mexicans and to our American investors. 

Mexico has been hunted to death by bloodhound government. 

Our relations to Mexico would be helped by appointing am- 
bassadors with brains and character, instead of mere makeshifts 
in payment of political debts. 

-It is said that European investments in Mexico are a billion 
dollars in addition to Spanish estate holdings, and the amount of 
U. S. capital invested there equals all of Europe. 

The biggest, hardest yoke ever placed on the Mexican's neck 
was put there by Carranza. 

IMore fuss was made over the death of the Englishman, Mr. 
Benton, in Mexico, than over all our murdered Americans. 

Old Uncle Tom was a millionaire plantation owner compared 
with the Mexican peon slave. 

Mexico took our Red Cross supplies of food and clothes and 
sold them for corrupt official graft. 

Neglect of Americans in Mexico has cost over two hundred 
lives and the ruined property and livelihood of over 30,000. 

The bandit omits the prohibition "not" from the Ten Com- 
mandments, forgets the spirit of the Sermon on the ]\Iount, and 
instead of the love of the Peacemaker, says, "Kill, rob and out- 
rage the inhabitants of yonder city, then set it on fire and make 
it a heap of ashes." 

Self-government is efficient government. 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 325 

Travel in Mexico is painful travail. 

The Aztecs were the original gum-chewers, chewing the 
chicle or sap, from the sapodilla tree. 

Mexico is mangled, but not through any cleaning process. 

The man who does not provide for his own household has 
"denied the faith and is worse than an infidel." Charity be- 
gins at home. Don't preach to your neighbor's family until 
your own children practice your precepts. 

Forbearance sometimes ceases to be a virtue. 

We have forgiven Mexico more than seventy times seven. The 
next thing is to fight. 

The Mexican problem is as hard to solve as a Chinese puzzle. 

Dictatorship is Mexico 's ship of state. 

Mexico's filibusters are trying to bust her. 

Villa is one of Mexico's best vaudevillains. 

In the family of nations Mexico's foreign relations are "poor" 
relations. 

Mexico needs fair public spirit and not foul private stealing. 

Mexicans have been slaves for so long they have lost the 
faculty for self-government. 

Lind's mission was mostly omission. 

Mexico's ark has a hard time to float on the insurgent waves 
of rebellion. 

Mutiny is a menace of Mexico. 



326 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

Mexico's government is a political maelstronu 

Mexico needs a big stick of hickory, not of candy. 

Mexico's political volcanoes are only quiet that they may 
erupt with greater violence. 

God made Porfirio Diaz and that soldier-statesman made 
ilexico. 

Mexico's ignorance and jealousy are two factions that will 
never produce satisfaction. 

Diplomatic prescriptions of pills and plasters made Mex- 
ico's bad condition worse. 

A "laissez faire" policy is generally lazy and unfair. 

A weathercock of vacillation is a poor ornament for the White 
House. 

I\Iany Washington diplomats are adepts in the policy of doing j 
nothing — that should be done. 

Invasion is better than evasion of Mexico. 

Type is no sooner set up announcing a new state of affairs Idi 
Mexico than the type of government is upset. 

Party politics' policy could be fittingly portrayed as 
Patience sitting on a AVashington monument smiling at the 
grief of Americans in Mexico. 

It looks as if IMexico is traveling from Despotism to Dem- 
ocracy by ox-cart and not automobile. 

It is love's labor lost to send notes and proclamations toj 
Mexico where 80 per cent of the people can't read. 

The White House of Mexico is a blood shed. 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 327 

Fine words butter no parsnips, and the words "idealism" 
and "altruism" will not excuse administration indifference to 
wronged Americans in Mexico. 

The Mexican government sold the products of the country 
and starved the natives. 

We need deeds not words, swords not speeches. 

It is often better to punch than to pacify. 

"We don't want to fight the Mexican people, but the bandits, 
and Carranza whom 90 per cent of the Mexicans don't like. 

No one can help Mexico as the United States can and should. 

Our recognition of Carranza made Hell roar, and the spirits 
of Washington and Lincoln weep in Heaven. 

Americans pray for the day when they can carry Old Glory 
to Mexico and have it stand for protection to Americans, square 
deal to Mexicans} and Europeans, and freedom and justice 
for all. 

The church and state have been the Priest and Levite who 
have passed the poor Mexican peon by, leaving him robbed, 
wounded and half dead. Uncle Sam should be the good Sam- 
aritan. 

Mexico can't help herself and we must help her. 

The American spectators of our "Tragedy of Errors" 
applaud the London "Spectator" which said of our Mexican 
policy: "it intervenes and pretends not to be intervening; 
it deprecates anarchy and bloodshed but neither stops them 
itself nor allows anybody else to stop them." 

" Peace-at-any-price " policy is not only against sense but 
the Scripture which says, "Peace, peace, when there is no peace," 
and, "I came not to bring peace but a sword." 



328 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

Uncle Sam is the moral policeman of Latin America. He 
should make a raid on i\Iexico's disorderly house, pinch the bad 
tenants and put the place in order. 

Pillage is the bitter pill which Americans in Mexico have 
been forced to take. 

We can't influence Washington but we can influence the 
American people to vote to send the right officials to Wash- 
ington. 

"What shall we do in Mexico?" has various answers. Do 
nothing, let dog eat dog — this is the policy of non-interference ; 
invade with armed force and conquer ; and occupy with the force 
of military police, as our soldiers did at Vera Cruz, making 
friends with the natives. 

To the question, "What right have we in Mexico?" the 
answer is, the right of the strong to help the weak, the right to 
protect American and foreign life and property, and the right 
to stamp out the plague of anarchy which kills all it infects. 



MEXICO 



HE colors of Mexico's flag should be black and red for [ 
medievalism and murder. Mexico is a state of anarchy, 
flatteringly miscalled a republic, and is bounded North, 
South, East and West by bandits. 

Topography. Mexico has mountains of debt, volcanoes of _ 
hate, rivers of blood, deserts of despair, gulfs and oceans of ■ 
tears. 

Climate. The three zones are hot, hotter and hottest for 
Americans who go there. War-clouds prevail at all seasons and 
a "reign" of lawlessness. 




THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 329 

Flora. The national flowers are the am" bush," "peon "age 
and dis" aster," found everywhere in the republic. Monopoly 
plants, beggar "palms" and deflowered virtue are on every side. 
One sees every tree but the tree of knowledge. 

Fauna. The principal fauna are mosquitoes, fleas, jail- 
birds, political vultures, vermin, wolf of hunger, "dear" prices, 
" ant "i- Americanism, snakes (related to the Old Serpent), and 
"gorilla" warfare. 

Geology and Mining. Mexico's mining consists in under- 
mining the government. Gold and silver are found in the pock- 
ets of the president and his staff; copper in the hands of wire- 
pulling trusts ; lead in the heads of the people and the bodies of 
the bandits; iron in the rule of the dictators and in the chains 
and manacles on the hands and feet of Liberty. 

Agriculture. The main agriculture is raising Cain and wild 
oats, hemp for hanging people, maguey pulque to get drunk 
on, and weeds of idleness and tobacco. 

Stock-raising. Stock-raising is generally confined to breed- 
ing herds of human and Indian cattle. 

Commerce. Mexico exports good citizens and Americans and 
imports prohibited ammunition. She buys and sells public office, 
honesty and woman's virtue, the three cheapest commodities. 

Industries. Mexico manufactures false cable news, lying 
press reports and Yankeephobia. 

Government. The country is ruled by a Triumvirate of 
graft, revolution and despotism ; courts of injustice ; congress of 
crooks; cabinet of wooden heads; and a "liberal" constitution 
spread over many reams of paper. 

Finance. Mexico's finance rests on waste paper, forced loans, 
depreciated currency, commandeering a railroad or bank, impos- 
ing robbing and ruinous rates of taxation on oil, gold and silver 
mines, squeezing Mr. Common People dry and pickpocketing 
legitimate business ventures. 



330 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

Education. There is little or none except in school of experi- 
ence and hard knocks. Its graduates of illiteracy learn to shoot, 
and are well educated in the three R's of robbery, rape and 
revolution. 

Religion. Mexico has little religion except to hate a neigh- 
bor and love his wife ; to rob the poor peon ; to give a continuous 
performance of crucifixes, carnivals and carnality; to Christian- 
ize paganism; to veil idolatry and sanctify superstition; to fol- 
low ritualism in the morning and robbery at night. 

Army. Mexico's army is a lot of licentious, legalized loot- 
ers who fight for plunder, not principle. 

Navy. The navy is a slow fleet — a few floating scrap-iron 
wash-tubs called gun-boats, cruisei-s and despatch boats. 

Amusement. Mexico's chief amusements consist in killing 
one another, throwing the bull, cock fighting, plaza promenades, 
pulque drinking, cigaret smoking, public flirting and private 
liasons, damning Uncle Sam, insulting our flag and robbing and 
shooting the gringo. 

History. Her history is a volume of vice and violence; a 
book of blood and bigotry; a path of perfidy and plunder; a 
story of sin, slavery and shame; a calendar of cupidity and 
crime; an inventory of intrigue and infamy; a blot on the 
escutcheon of nations. 

Population. Mexico's population is sixteen million Indians, 
mixed and whites — three-fourths of whom would be in jail if the 
laws were enforced. The divine image is defaced and the ma- 
jority act more like animals than human beings. They are a 
race of slaves, mostly fools. 

Bihliography. Books on Mexico fill a LIEbrary. Among the 
most prominent authors are the following: ]\liss Information; 
Mary Enthusiast ; The Right Reverend Foolem ; Hon. Ready 
Liar; Frank Scoreem ; Useless Information; Charles Landsharkj 
Will Oilgrusher; Levi Goldbrick; Skinner Syndicate. 




THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 331 

HELL IN MEXICO 

T it useless to deny the personality of the devil. There 
may as well be an actual devil as a literal hell in 
Mexico. Scripture describes his Satanic majesty's 
character and conduct as ''full of all subtlety, and all 
mischief, the enemy of all righteousness, perverting the right 
ways of the Lord. ' ' 

Lucifer made war in heaven but was defeated and driven to 
earth where he has been writing the word "hell" in blood-red 
letters. He made trouble in Eden for Adam and Eve and has 
since traveled all over the world leaving his slimy trail in 
religion, politics, business and society. Later he came over with 
the Spaniards to Mexico, a paradise of climate, scenery and 
marvelous wealth of wood and mine, and made it a desolation. 

Cortez was a personification of Satan. He came to Mexico 
in 1519 with the sword in hisi right hand and the crucifix in the 
left, and went after "mazuma" and Montezuma. According to 
impartial history he Avielded them both in oppression, robbery, 
violence and bloodshed, backed by a corrupt laity and an un- 
principled clergy. The Mexican emperor, Maximilian, declared, 
"Confess, my well-esteemed prelates, that the Mexican church 
by a lamentable fatality has mingled too much in politics and 
in aifairs of temporal possessions, neglecting in consequence the 
Catholic instruction of its flocks." W. E. Curtis writes, "All the 
weight of Eomish influence, intellectual, financial and spiritual, 
has been employed to destroy the Republic and restore the 
Monarchy while the Liberal party has strangled the church and 
stripped it of every possession." 

There were better conditions in Mexico among the Toltees 
and the Aztecs, with their simple arts and agriculture in the 
8th and 12th centuries, than after 300 years of misrule under 
Spain, who regarded the country simply as a gold mine to be 
worked, and her natives to be abject slaves. 

After three centuries of restless submission the Gospel of 
freedom was preached by the priest, Hidalgo, "the father of 
Mexican independence." He was a real religious crusader and 
pleaded and fought for the rights of his wronged countrymen. 
The result was that the 57 varieties of Spanish viceroys ceased, 
though the turbulent road of Mexico's history is marked by the 



332 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

names of Iturbide, Santa Anna, Juarez, Maximilian, Tejada, 
Diaz, Madero, Huerta and Carranza. Up to 1876 poor Mexico 
had been ruled by 52 dictators, an emperor and a regent. Before 
the Diaz regime of thirty years of peace there was constant 
war and no middle class, only the rich and poor. The people 
rose and demanded their rights, Diaz was overthrown and Ma- 
dero followed, who though not a Protestant, called on the people 
to assert their religious, social and political rights. 

Though ]\Iexico is large and fertile, the people for 400 years 
have had little ground to call their own, not even their graves. 
A few rich land owners own the country. Of its 16 million 
population it is estimated that 7,000 wealthy families own 500,- 
000 square miles of territory which they claim by titles from 
the Spanish crown and confirm by corrupt courts. A leading 
cause of discontent today is that the poor peon wants to live 
under his own vine and fig tree and make more than 18 cents 
wages a day. 

Mexico, rich in room and resources, has been impoverished 
by a form of government and religion which has robbed her of 
civil reform and freedom of worship. The common people have 
grown restless under civic and clerical powers, which denied 
human equality and constitutional liberty, and have risen up in 
revolutionary might. The City of IMexico tries to rule the 
whole countr}^, and a proud, profligate and political aristocracy 
rules the city. Time and money are not spent for education, 
scientific schools or art galleries, but on ammunition, cock and 
bullfights, schemes of colossal graft, drinking pulque, gambling 
and debauchery. 

A sad state of affairs ! The people enslaved to a burden- 
some, feudal land system, 90 per cent of them unable to read or 
write, most of them illegitimate, all of them practically starv- 
ing, no high ideals of Christian or civilized peoples! If this 
isn't hell, what is, and if it isn't here in Mexico, where is it? 

We have played fast and loose between the deviltry of 
Villa and the defiance of Carranza. Criticizing the dictatorship 
our position has been ignorantly or wilfully misunderstood. 
Today from his present eminence, like ]\Iilton's devil, Carranza 's 
"horrid hair shakes pestilence and war." He is accused of 
standing on the backs of the poor, illiterate peons; to be with 
the rich against the poor, with the strong against the weak. 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 333 

Foolish man tO' now plough the soil with shot and shell and sow 
dragon's teeth in furrows, from which will rise more bandits 
who will undo him as he has undone others. 

In Mexico, as in Central and South America, citizens of 
the U. S. are always suspected, and never respected or protected, 
because our diplomats are "diplomuts." Hundreds of our citi- 
zens have been killed in Mexico, our soldiers ambushed, women 
dishonored, children mutilated and starved, property stolen, our 
government cursed, our flag insulted and our citizens forced to 
go to the British consuls for protection. There has been no 
redress in life or reparation after death. Too long these gringo- 
haters have derisively placed their hands to their nose to Old 
Glory — they may now put them to the seat of their pants, 
because Uncle Sam is preparing to give them a good, wholesome 
kick. There can be no law and order without fear of penalty 
and punishment. God offers a loving heaven and terrifies with 
fear of hell. It 's all right to offer a stick of candy, but all wrong 
to forget the big stick. 

The trouble with Mexico and Latin- America is that they have 
been ungrateful for the kindness and protection we have shown 
them with our Monroe Doctrine, which declares that further 
acquisition of U. S. territory by Europe will be regarded as an 
unfriendly act, and we will not countenance any interference in 
the international affairs of any of the independent states in 
either the North or South American continents. Latin-America 
reminds us of the fable of the frozen snake. The farmer kindly 
brought him in his house, kindled a fire and warmed him. He 
revived and thanked his benefactor by trying to bite him. 

We must make good in Mexico or grow bad — we can't play 
the dog in the manger and must eat grass or give the ox a chance. 
We are under moral obligation to bring law and order, peace 
and justice in Mexico, as in Cuba, or give up the Monroe idea 
and permit other nations to come in and protect their citizens 
and interests in Mexico or anywhere else in Latin-America. 

A refugee told me that 90 per cent of the natives would 
gladly vote to have their lives and property protected by our 
flag. France helped us in our early struggle for freedom, why 
shouldn't we help Mexico? Our duty is not to fight against 
Mexico but for her. 



334 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

Uncle Sam is the moral policeman of North and South Amer- 
ica and the U, S. cannot evade its responsibility. We are our 
brother's keeper by the creation, discovery, providence and his- 
tory of this western continent. We are to vindicate the rights 
of humanity, of Americans in Mexico, of Mexicans in America 
and of Mexicans in Mexico. 



MY MEXICAN ALPHABET 



NTI-AMERICANIS]\I, Anarchy 

Bandits, Beggars, Bullfights 

Churches, Carnivals, Cigarets, Cockfights 

Debt, Disease, Degeneracy 
Egotism, Earthquakes, Election Farces 
Filth, Fraud, Finance 
Graft, Gringoes, Greasers, Germans 
Hats, Hemp, Hammocks, Hell 
Idleness, Illiteracy, Illegitimacy 
Jealousy, Jingos 
Knaves, Killing 
hying, Licentiousness 
Misrule, Mestizos, Llanana 
Nefariousness, "Northers" (hurricanes) 
Oil, Ore, Outrage 
Peons, Pulque, Plazas 
Quick-temper, Quarrels, Quarantine 
Ruins, Red-tape, Revolutions 
Soldiers, Socialism, Superstition 
Thieves, Treachery, Tortillas 
Uprisings, Usurpers 
Vice, Volcanoes, Vermin 
Wrecks, Wretchedness 
'Xecutions, 'Xactions, 'Xploitation 
Yahoos, Yaquis, Yucatecans 
Zones, Zapatistas 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 335 

A "FAST" BOAT 



S we left Vera Craz on the "Esperanza" late Friday 
night we could see, beyond the lights of the city, and 
the Malecon, a great red glare of conflagration. But 
it was nothing — the bandits were simply warming up 
things by burning some town or train. Many passengers missed 
the boat because the passenger train couldn't get through. We 
had learned from our consul that two Englishmen had just been 
wantonly murdered on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec road, and 
that the railroad from Vera Cruz to Alvarado, with the little 
towns along it, had been destroyed by the rebels. 

After just missing ramming a boat within the breakwater, 
that was sailing dark, we were out again on the wide, friendly 
Gulf. A day's sail brought us early Sunday morning to Pro- 
greso. A clear sky and emerald sea belied the dark war cloud 
that hung over the country. 

As usual, progress was slow at Progreso. We had no cargo 
to unload, nothing to do but let some passengers off and take 
some others on. This would have required but one or two hours 
in a civilized port, but according to Latin-American custom it 
was a day's delay. At last we left and learned there were many 
left over at Progreso for there was no room for them on our 
ship. I was truly sorry and wondered what awful crime they 
had committed that Providence should punish them by compell- 
ing them to remain in Yucatan till the next boat. 

Our boat was packed and the passengers who attracted the 
most attention were gamblers and ladies of pleasure who had 
found rough sailing under Alvarado in Yucatan. He had closed 
up the red light districts and the dames were on their way to 
Havana. Gamblers played a big game day and night. The 
green cloth tables were always full, for gambling goes on Latin 
American boats so long as the players observe formal pro- 
prieties and refrain from shooting each other. One sport's lady 
friend, who would not be left behind, followed her lover aboard 
and tagged him all over the ship after he had won $300. She 
cried and begged him to let her take care of the money so they 
might have something when they arrived at New York. He 
answered her with rough talk and bratal blows. 




336 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

Passengers were not only accosted on the deck by young 
Merida Magdalens, but one of them took up her quarters in the 
smoke room as a manicurist for men only and managed to make 
some professional engagements. No matter how vigilant and 
virtuous the officers on these boats may be these moral harpies 
ply their trade on ship in cabin quarters. 



MANICURES 

OLDING hands is dangerous business. The hand is the 
lightning conductor of love and lust. The manicurist, 
like Othello, would find "occupatiou gone" if hand- 
holding were practiced by men or old women. It is 
the sex element that usually attracts and holds. 

Many modest and decent manicurists go regularly and pro- 
fessionally to the homes of their patients or are found in office, 
parlor or barber annex position. Anywhere and everywhere 
they are pure and true womanly. 

Too often the manicure profession wears the livery of heaven 
to serve the devil in. The time, the place and girl are often 
occupied in meeting the husbands, brothers and lovers of others. 

People who won't work with their hands are known by the 
manicures they keep. Nails are peeled, pared, polished and 
painted while the owner's rough mind lives in the cellar and 
garret of mental and moral poverty. 

Manicuring is a society luxury for men and women who 
form the polished horde of bores and bored. The world is still 
deceived with fuss and feathers and people who hide grossness 
with fair ornament. 

The manicure is a necessity for musicians, doctors, dudes and 
darlings in society who, beyond the actual care of their body, 
in food, dress and drink, think their hands were made only to 
wear gloves, rings, be manicured, held or united in a ''good 
catch" marriage. 



THE DEVIIj in MEXICO 337 

The rich are manicured who have money to bum. The idle 
are manicured who have time to waste. The idiots are mani- 
cured who have no idea of the value of time or money. Liber- 
tines are manicured who play guilty Fausts to pure and inno- 
cent Margarets. Hotel lechers and loafers are manicured who 
forget mother, sister, wife or sweetheart. 

They have no time or money for church or charity, but sit 
by the hour holding a girl's hand, looking into her face, trying 
to fan a spark of passion into their burnt-out cinder body while 
with hand, foot, eye and tongue they try ''to make a date." 

The word ' ' hand ' ' means to hold or seize and is to man what 
the claw is to the bird, fin to fish and hoof to horse. The hand 
is marvelously made with twenty-seven bones, eight of which 
are in the wrist, five form the palms, and fourteen the bones or 
phalanges, or fingers. The hand was made for work, as proved 
by anatomy, and Scripture — ''Go work," "Work earnestly with 
both hands." 

"Handsome is that handsome does," and black or white 
hands are fine which do good work. Angelo carving marble, 
Eaphael painting Madonnas, Shakespeare writing immortal 
dramas, Beethoven copying heavenly symphonies, Washington 
drawing his sword for liberty and Lincoln penning the Eman- 
cipation Proclamation spent little time and money in manicure 
parlors. 

Beautiful are the hands of wife, sister, man or friend which 
have directed, led and lifted us by pitfall, through marsh and 
despair, to mount the height on which we stand — hands per- 
fumed with prayer, baptized with tears, clasped with affection 
and generous with charity. 

The man ought to be horse-whipped who uses the words 
"hard," "homely," " unmanicured, " of the hands of a father, 
calloused that they might give daily bread ; hands of a mother, 
blistered and aching for work never done until they are crossed 
white in the coffin and God gives them rest; baby hands which 
twine around the treUis of our hearts and are unclasped by 
death. 



338 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

STOPOVERS 



WE reached Havana Tuesday morning, and from the 
papers that were brought on board we learned the 
rebels were still at it and had burned some sugar mills 
and plantations. The passengers from Yucatan who 
disembarked here were put in quarantine for several days. Cuba 
has experienced several house cleanings and is careful of new 
boarders. 

Because we had remained on the boat at Progreso we were 
permitted to go ashore with ample time to buy some souvenirs 
of hats and cigars, and take some photos of rural rebels being 
marched to prison. 

At sunset we said "Good-night" to Havana and reached 
Nassau the next afternoon. The ship was not permitted to 
unload or take on cargo for Nassau was a dark house at night. 
From wdiite governor to black negro every one was afraid of the 
German submarine. As if this were any hindrance. As if to 
put out a light was to put the compass out of commission. This 
"sub" scare had driven and kept away all the tourists who 
were promised nothing after supper but early to bed. As a 
result all the season's killing was confined to killing the tourist 
trade. Everyone felt put out on shore but the lightning bugs, 
and every light wvis out but the moon and stars overhead. 

"We had to sail ten miles up to Cocoanut Island where we 
unloaded and took on a cargo of sisal and fruit. After supper 
we received word from the shore that neither our lower nor 
upper lights could be kept burning. They were distinctly seen 
and must be turned off at once. Every light but the cargo light 
on the land side was extinguished and we were all in the dark. 
The stars were beautiful and bright, especially a movie star who 
came aboard and dined with us at the captain's table. Love's 
flame was lighted when the ship's light went out and our Latin 
passengers embraced the opportunity and each other. They 
talked, walked, sat, spooned or danced over the moonlit decks 
to the music of the phonograph. One American got full of 
liquor and love. I was on deck and saw him grab a young lady 
by the arm and make an insulting remark. He was hustled to 
his room, locked in by the purser and deck hand and made night 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 339 

hideous with his drunken, ribald songs. The lady was escorted 
to her room by the stewardess who shut her up. 

In the morning we launched ashore, hired a black man with 
a white horse to show up what we had seen here several times 
before — the stores, sponges, ceiba tree, library, Queen's Stair- 
case, the forts, hotels, bird-cage houses, happy natives and the 
various churches. He ended the drive by taking us to Alex- 
ander's Fruit Fann, where I ate at one standing six, large, 
delicious grapefruits. 

Returning to the boat we stopped at the Marine Gardens, 
buried our heads in an old oaken bucket with a glass bottom, 
and saw the many colored sands, coral, fish and plant life. The 
scenery of shore, island, palm and ship is beautiful. But you 
need not come here to see it, for within the last few years Nassau 
has become a moving picture studio for scenes and scenarios. 
Every tree and shell on Cocoanut Island and around has been 
flashed on all the screens from 'Frisco to New York. I wonder 
what our staid, English friends think of our jolly American 
actors and actresses who come here and often set up a movie 
pace hard to follow. 

Before we could reach our ship the wind came up and we 
bumped into some big waves that drenched us. At times we 
slowed down and stopped, or the sea, large for our little launch, 
would have overwhelmed us. It required dexterous skill of 
hands and feet to get aboard and to climb the pilot's rope ladder 
which the ship's motion made into a pendulum. At last all 
were on, we raised anchor, the whistle blew and we were on the 
last stretch headed for home. 



PATRIOTISM 

\ Y^ |ALM Sunday, April first, we neared New York. The 
y Jl J "Hosanna" of war was in the air. We passed muni- 
[^^^^ tion boats, war cruisers, submarine destroyers, forts 
Utmml and flying flags. Aeroplanes flew and swooped above 
the skyscrapers like eagles over craggy mountain peaks. The 
steel harbor nets were open and we entered. Liberty was the 
first one we saw to greet us and she was more beautiful than all 
the seiioritas we had seen in Mexico or Yucatan. 



340 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

P for Palm Sunday and patriotism whose waves swept all 
over the city. Flags, bands, crowds, church bells, ministers and 
choirs were moved by the spirit of America, and of Ilim who 
declared his divine mission was to set the captive free. 

This flame of liberty-loving Americanism Hashed along the 
historic road to Washington. Our boys were on guard at bridge 
and tunnel. The spirit of John Brown and our soldier dead 
was abroad in the laud. We reached Washington the night of 
April second when a state of war was declared against Germany, 
In the distance the illuminated dome of the Capitol looked like 
a bell whose tongue was then declaring liberty to all the world. 
I mixed with the crowds thronging the streets, which moved as 
one man, breathed one sentiment, offered one prayer, "Thy king- 
dom of freedom come, thy will be done in Europe as it is in 
America." 

All that night the train wheels whirred the word "Liberty." 
In Chicago the Avind whispered it and the waves of Lake Mich- 
igan shouted, "Liberty." When I entered Minneapolis the Mis- 
sissippi, Father of Waters, was waiting to welcome his prodigal 
son home and repeated the same word, "Liberty." 



WAR 



THANK God, our ship of state has been converted from 
a pleasure yacht into a torpedo destroyer to hunt down 
the pirate Kaiser in his infernal submarine. 

Uncle Sam is the captain. Liberty is at the helm, 
American citizens are the gunners, the searchlight is Truth, and 
the ship papers are the Constitution and Declaration of Inde- 
pendence. 

No longer does the pacifist passenger sit on the deck in a 
steamer chair, wrapped up in a blanket, asking the steward for 
beef-tea and sandwiches. The decks are cleared for action. 
There are no more games of political shuflle board ; we have can- 
non balls instead of fancy dress balls, and the seductive strains 
of Strauss have given wav to the spirit-stirring music of "Amer- 
ica" and "The Star Spangled Banner." 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 341 

"Were the Psalmist David living today I am sure he would 
say, "If I forget thee, America, let my right hand forget her 
cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to 
the roof of my mouth ; if I prefer not America above my chief 
joy." 

The Bible inculcates the loftiest patriotism more than any 
ancient or modern book, for service to God includes sacrifice for 
man. 

Our national inheritance of liberty is God's gi-eat gift. We 
only thank Him for it, and are worthy of our fathers who trans- 
mitted it to us, when we are willing to fight to maintain it for 
ourselves and the whole human family. To betray this trust now 
would be the unpardonable sin against God and man, and send 
our souls and nation to hell. 

The Gospel has only a forced alliance with war, but that 
alliance is the history of the human race showing what it is, 
when it comes and whither it is tending. 

The journey of white-robed Peace is along the smoke-cur- 
tained road of Strife. Wars of conquest and revenge are wrong, 
wars of righteous principle have been pillars of fire to human- 
ity's Israel indicating and vindicating the divinely ordained 
path of the race. 

The wars of Alexander spread Greek civilization into Egypt 
and Asia ; of Rome, resolved the known world to law and order ; 
of Charlemagne, suppressed barbaric invasion; of the Refor- 
mation, brought religious liberty; of England, in India, intro- 
duced the civilization of a Christian nation ; of the Colonies with 
Great Britain, effected liberty; of the North with the South, 
made unity; and of America with Spain, brought Cuban inde- 
pendence. 

The war of our nation today is for democracy against aris- 
tocracy. The kingibusiness is growing bankrupt. It is high 
time to split up the thrones into kindling for the shivering poor 
and to melt gold crowns into money to buy bread for the 
starving. 

No government can last which is not founded upon the solid 
rock of every man's right to life, liberty and pursuit of happi- 
ness. 



342 THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 

LIBERTY 



A AMERICA means physical, political, mental and moral 
freedom. Mexico means slavery and poverty of body, 
mind and soul. 

The American idea recognizes the spiritual worth 
of every man and declares that man does not exist for the 
state but the state exists for man. Our Declaration of Inde- 
pendence is the new gospel that Mexico needs to make her 
wealth, aristocracy and ritualism shake on their thrones. Free- 
dom isn't primarily free constitutions or free declarations but 
free men. Give the Mexican right freedom and right results 
will follow. 

The imposing structure of our national union rests upon the 
granite foundation stones of free speech, religious liberty, trial 
by jury, equity before law, right of petition and representation. 
Inheritors of such a blessing, we should be grateful to God and 
our forefathers and show love and loyalty for our nation. 

The War of the Revolution was for liberty, the War of the 
Rebellion for union and our third great war is for the preserva- 
tion of American life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. 

The Declaration of Independence and the spirit of the 
Fourth of July draw their inspiration from that old book neg- 
lected in Mexico, the Bible, that declares that man made in the 
image of God, with a heart to love, a will to decide and a brain 
to think, be he black, red, yellow or white, rich or poor, wise 
or ignorant, Jew, Gentile, Protestant or Roman Catholic, or of 
any other creed or class, has a right to live; the right to make 
his living; the right to adequate compensation for the labor of 
his head or hand, and the right to have some leisure left in which 
to pursue happiness in his home by society and study, or in 
nature by travel and contemplation. 

When Mexico starts with our premise she will come to our 
conclusion; when she seeks peace and justice, loves mercy and 
truth and banishes illiteracy, illegitimacy, selfishness and slaugh- 
ter, she will have a July 4th and her mineral and agricultural 
resources will no longer be a hell of desolation and poverty. 

Today the world is fighting for a government of, by and 
for the people. We spend our blood, brains and bonds for dem- 
ocracy as against aristocracy, for individualism against abso- 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 343 

lutism in political and religious life. Church and state exist for 
man and not man for church and state. True Americanism is 
as much opposed to Vaticanism as Imperialism. The difference 
between United States and Mexico is our religion which guar- 
antees to every man the God-given rights of a free body, mind 
and soul, and our self-government through individual choice so 
long as that choice does not wrong another. When America 
surrenders to any prelatical or political power on the Tiber or 
on the Rhine she is a slave in the abject and subject condition 
of Mexico. 



OLD GLORY 



LET no flag ever float over Old Glory. Church and 
state are separate in the United States. As our gov- 
ernment would not permit a political banner, with 
ensign of Republican elephant or Democratic donkey, 
to be placed over Old Glory during a political meeting, so it 
should insist that no religious church flag, Protestant or Roman 
Catholic, Jewish or Gentile, should be raised above Old Glory 
during any religious service on any warship, as is now done. If 
any special sectarian flag is hoisted over the Stars and Stripes 
for an hour on Sunday, why may it not remain there all day, a 
whole week or a year? Patriots of the George Washington and 
Abraham Lincoln type recognize but one flag, and any church 
that recognizes any other, pulls the political ropes so that it runs 
up its denominational flag above Old Glory, or even puts it be- 
neath it on the same flag staff, is un-American, un-Constitu- 
tional, unpatriotic, unfair and un-Christian, and is an enemy 
and not a friend of the United States, no matter what its pious 
palaver and perfidious protestations may be. 

Now is the time for Old Glory to achieve new glory. 

The letter F in our flag stands for faith in God; L for lib- 
erty of body, mind and soul ; A for army on land and sea ; and 
G for the good of every class, creed and condition which it 
M^elcomes to our shores. 

Old Glory is the sj^mbol of the America it represents. It 
floats over the cradles of the living and the graves of the dead; 
it is the most beautiful banner the winds of heaven ever kissed ; 



344 THE DEVIL IN ilEXICO 

on its ample folds are emblazoned the words of Webster's heart, 
"Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable." 

It was prophetic that our flag's design was found in the Stars 
and Stripes on the Coat of Arms of Washington's family. Betsy 
Ross of Philadelphia has the proud honor of making the first 
American flag. Gallant Paul Jones raised the glorious ensign 
over his vessel ; August 6, 1777, the Stars and Stripes were un- 
furled over the captured British colors of Fort Stanwix. 

The flag is immortal in story and in song. At the Revolu- 
tion it was the swaddling clothes of the infant nation when it 
lay cradled in the lap of liberty. During the Rebellion it was a 
rainbow spanning North and South declaring Liberty, Equality 
and Fraternity. In the Spanish War it was the cherubim with 
outstretched wings of protection. Today it is the eagle which 
plumes its wings and soars through cloud and above storm. 

God made and breathed his blessings on our flag as it floats 
on sea and land, for home, church and country. It stands for 
liberty, honor, bravery and duty. Compared with the flags of 
despotism, in other lands, it is like a flower in the wilderness, 
a star in the night and life in death. 

Our youth do well to observe flag day. The foundation and 
defense of our nation is the Public School. Its insignia is not 
a cross or crescent but a flag. There is no sweeter school exer- 
cise than that which says, "I give my head, heart and hand to 
God and my country. One countr}', one language and one flag." 
Amen, shouts the sea, roar the rocks, shines the sun and echoes 
the earth. 

Old Glory realizes Cavour's idea of a "free state and a free 
church." Its stars and stripes claim protection for all be they 
rich or poor, wise or ignorant, young or old, black, yellow, red 
or white, or whether they worship Christ, Confucius, Jehovah 
or Buddha, 

The test of American citizenship is loyalty to the flag which 
now, as in Washington's time, represents a religion which gave 
us a Christian nation ; education which gave us the public school 
system; liberty which grew into the Declaration of Independ- 
ence; and patriotism which fought for American institutions. 

America is founded on granite, domed by the sky. lit l\v the 
stnrs and bounded by the sea. God planned the discovery of 
this land with its room and resources and protected our fathers 



THE DEVIL IN MEXICO 345 

in their institutions of civil and religious liberty that we might 
be the refuge for the world's oppressed. The blood of all the 
world is with us. We are ''heirs of all the ages in the foremost 
files of time." 

Castelar said, "America is the continent of all the future 
K^here mankind may essay and resolve all social problems. ' ' His 
belief is shared by millions who have come from shores where 
misgovernment has killed energy and virtue and who are now 
lere praying God to bless our land and teaching their children 
to love the flag, lisp the name of America with pleasure and 
shout with joy, "Hail, Columbia, happy land." Marching to 
the music of "America" and under the aegis of Old Glory we 
say with Winthrop at Faneuil Hall, "Our country to be cher- 
ished in all our hearts, to be defended by all our hands. " It is 
our delight and duty to give our voice and vote for the defense 
of this flag and what it represents and to swear with Choate, 
"We join ourselves to no party that does not carry the flag and 
keep step to the music of United States." The prayer of age 
and childhood, ' ' Thy kingdom come, ' ' will yet be answered, and 
as America goes the world will go in all that is vital to moral 
welfare. 

Our real defense is army and navy, bullets and bayonets, 
brains and ballots. To protect our constitution and flag there 
are thousands of patriots who will willingly climb the Calvary 
of Death in the spirit of Washington and Lincoln. 

The God of Liberty has given a banner of liberty to the sons 
and daughters of liberty that it may be "displayed" because of 
the truth of liberty at home and abroad. President McKinley, 
in the name of humanity, civilization and endangered American 
interests, said the shame and slaughter should stop in Cuba, and 
it did. In that same spirit and not for revenge, gold or glory. 
Uncle Sam must send an ultimatum to Mexico that our flag be 
respected. True, it was once cut by sabre-stroke, but it has been 
cemented by the blood of the North and South who are rallying 
to its defense. 

Our flag's red stripe was born of bravery at the cannon's 
mouth ; its white is emblematic of the purity of our women ; the 
blue suggests the heaven whence comes undying hope ; the stars 
are the footprints of the angels which lead to victory. 



346 THE DEVDj in MEXICO 

I love the flag ; my father fought for it in '64 ; it floats over 
my house every day in the year; I have belted the globe with 
Old Glory stick-pins from Boston to Bombay and North Cape 
to Cape Horn. If I were President I would make Mexico get 
down on her knees and kiss the fla^ for insulting it, insist that 
the flag should protect every American citizen, and demand 
reparation for all the Americans already insulted, robbed, tor- 
tured and butchered. 

God bless America in any fight between Anglo-Saxonism and 
Latinism, intelligence and ignorance, freedom and slavery, Chris- 
tianity and superstition. 

God help every American to feel the Monroe Doctrine is not 
worth the paper it is written on unless it stands for the prin- 
ciple of supporting the rights of God's children everywhere. 

God save our flag which cost more and means more than any 
flag in the world, and make us swear that whoever strikes, slights 
or insults it must reckon with the God of Liberty and the Amer- 
ican people. 

Civilization marches to America's time. "We hold the dial of 
social, political and moral standard. "We are our brother's 
keeper, and if the time ever comes when the humblest citizen 
beneath Old Glory's folds is not heard in his cry for justice, our 
glorious flag will become a dirty rag despised of God and man. 



I 



"ROHEN REPUBUCS" 

A TROPICAL TRAMP IN 

CENTRAL AMERICA 
By Rev. ''Golightly'' Morrill 

LITERARY LAVA 

A Witty, Racy, Epigrammatic Book, Right Up-to-Date, 

On British Honduras, Guatemala, Salvador, 

Spanish Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa 

Rica, Panama, Colombia, Cuba, 

Jamaica and Nassau. 

FOREWORD 



302 

Punchy 

PAGES 



53 

ncen 
sored 

PHOTOS 



Unceii' 
sored 



HAMLET found something "rotten 
in the state of Denmarli," but it 
was sweet compared with what I 
discovered in Central America^ 
the land of dirt, disease, destitution, 
darkness, dilapidation, despots, delay, 
debt, deviltry and degeneracy, where a 
conservative estimate makes 90 per 
cent of the women immoral, 95 per 
cent of the men thieves and 100 per 
cent of the population liars. 

A FEW OF THE CHAPTERS 

Naughty New Orleans, Hell in Mexico, Hookworms and Cock- 
roaches, Gum-Chewers, A Carib Village, Petrified People, At- 
lantis, In the Jungle, Hotel Dives, Gambling and Girls. Coffee 
Plantation, Sunday Cockfights. Skulls and Cross-Bones, Movies 
and Marimba, A Pig-Driver President, Pillory and Peon. Alli- 
gator Hunt, Loose Morals, Bombast and Bombs, Custom House 
Grafters, Our New Naval Base, A Crew of Crooks, Liars, Steal- 
ing — A Fine Art, Patriotic Piffle, Manana, Hammocks, Vol- 
canoes, Few Clothes, Filibusters, Intervention, Profanity, An 
Arch Fiend. Our Flag and Baseball. Nicaragua Canal Route, 
Quarantined, Prostitution in Pai:ama, In an Earthquake, Down 
in a Submarine. An Incestuou.s Union, Bananas. A Ni.<jht in 
Cartagena, Poor Schools, A Saintly Stiff, Wliere Bolivar Died, 
Bastards, A Garbage Market. A "Colombia" Record, A Tropical 
Court, Passion and Fashion. Fan Flirts, Santiago Memories, The 
Lottery Game, Our Lady Nicotine, "Pan" America, Diplomuts, 
Spanish Devils, Sodom Surpassed. 

$1.00 POSTPAID 

Address G. L. Morrill, Pastor People's Church 

3356 10th Ave., So., Minneapolis, Minn., U. S. A. 



PRESS COMMENTS ON G. L. MORRILL'S BOOK— 
"ROTTEN REPUBLICS— A TROPICAL TRAMP 
IN CENTRAL AMERICA" 



•'Tufiity years of my life wero spent in l^atin America, where I 
went as a phvsician. I know the i)OMiile ami speak their lanyuaKe. 1 
hold the chair of Foreij^rn Tiade at the New York University, where 
we have a ver.v larj^e ttucient body, and have recommended your work 
to my pupils in order to Kive 'lu-m a li'ue view of the Latin repub- 
lics."— \V. K. Al'ClllXHArcH, Foreign and Export Editor of Leslie's 
Weekly and Author of "Selling Latin America." 

"The next best thint; to traveling: around the world is to hear 
G. L. Morrill tell about it in his pithy, punchy, rapid-fire way." — E. -M. 
-XEW.MAN, noted globe-trotter and lecturer 




"You have a wonderfully interesting^ way of telling things. How- 
ever, after having written this book, I just wonder if you will feel 
safe in inakiim another trip through Central America. I notice you 
sort of talk in mighty plain English." — BERT HUBBARD, son of El- 
bert Hubbard. 

"Knowing, as I do, the countries which vou describe, your original, 
terse style is doubly interesting." — CHARLES E. EBERHARDT, U. S. 
Consul General to Latin America. 

"I have lived in Xicarajrua for twenty years. It would be a for- 
tunate thing if the gulUble investors in the tropics were able to get 
and read your book on Central America before investing." — M. J. 
CLANCY, Bluefields, Nicaragua. 

"'Rotten Republics' is one of the best l)ook.« \ ever read. It is 
interesting, instructive and entertaining. If you have ever taken a 
trip through Central America, you should read this book. If you have 
not, you should read it. It is epigrammatic and right up to date, and 
by a Globe-Trotter who sees things and has the rare faculty of telling 
you about them so that you can see them for yourself." — WILLIAM 
SULZER, ex-Governor of New York. 

"Colightlv, vour books ore great. They've got a sure enough 
'punch' in them.'"' — BOB FITZSIMMONS, World-Famous Pugilist. 

"'Rotten Republics' is a book that pleases and startles, but all the 
while teaches the great moral lessons intended. Doctor Morrill's vivid 
pictures are given in crisp chapters that entertain and bring us to 
the conclusion that spiritual regeneration is the immediate need of 
Latin America." — CLIFTON D. GRAY, in the Chicago Standard. 

"G. L. Morrill is a sort of ministerial Irvin Cobb. His book is real 
life shown up on the printed page as clearly as though .Tack London 
himself were behind the pen. Good and bad are inii)art ially shown. 
To the student of social conditions it is a valuable nuidern reference 
book. To the casual reader it is the best and wittiest thing he can 
take on a vacation or a railroad journey. He tells the truth without 
fear or favor. Some of the stories will never appear in the n.-wspapers. 
United States ought to be pretty well posted by a Morrill before it ties 
up with Pan-American Congresses."— LIGHT. Louisville, Ky, 



"South Sea 
Silhouettes" 



60 

RARE 

PHOTOS 



BY 
REV;C0LICHTLY" MORRILL 




A SKY-PILOT'S TRAVEL "LOG' 



ON 



HAWAII, SAMOA, FIJI, TONGA, TAHITI, 

RARO TONGA, NEW ZEALAND, AUSTRALIA 

AND TASMANIA 



Golightly was introduced to a hurricane in the Tongan Islands 
and saw a whole town demolished before his eyes; traveled in Ger- 
man Samoa at the time of the English occupation by New Zealand 
troops; went through waterspouts, tidal wave and drought un- 
touched; interviewed Fijian ex-cannibals and an Australian abo- 
riginal princess: photographed volcanoes and geysers, South Sea 
island dances and carnivals, and the war ruins of Papeete, Tahiti, 
made by the "Emden." His descriptions of the native life, manners 
and morals, and the effect of our so-called civilization on them, 
are racy and original. 



SOME OF THE 60 UNUSUAL PHOTOS 

Kilauea Volcano, Hula-hula Dancers, Fijian Black Beauties, 
Ex-cannibal Chief, Meke-meke Dance, A Kava Party, Pounding 
Tapa, Tongan Belles, In the Hurricane, The Tin Can Mail, R. L. 
Stevenson's Grave, Samoan Siva Dancers, Lime-haired Native, Rub- 
bing Noses, Haka Dancers, N. Z. Geyser, Women Voting, Blue 
Mountains, Aborigine with Boomerang, Native Wedding, Shelled 
bv Warships, Maid in Tahiti. 



PARTIAL CONTENTS 



Sydney After Dark 
A Black Angel 
Tasmaniacs 
A Deck-A-Log 
A Pajama Party 
Pearl Divers 
Strange Marriages 



A-tldre.ss G, 



Cannibals 

A Dead-Beat King 

Mid-Pacific Carnival 

Women's Morals 

Wrecked 

Swimming Ashore 

Horrible Deaths 

R. L. Stevenson's Grave Lepers 

Loving Hands Dope 

Tattooing Smugglers 

Easter Gambling Civilized Savages 

Prizefights Hell's INlasterpiece 

Heavy Gold Paper — $100 Postpaid. 
L,. Morrill, 1'a.stor I'eople's Church, :i3r>(> 10th Ave. 
Minneapolis, Minn,, V. S. A. 



SOMI;: PUESS CO>IMEXT OX "SOUTH SEA SILHOUETTES" 

llllllllllllllilllllllllilllllillllilllll 
"The healthy man does not live who will fail to open it to 
road. Because — sh-sh! — the front cover is a cut-out and peering' 
through the aperture is a winsome maiden of Tahiti, clad in two 
\ards of Sears-Koebuck muslin and a string of beads. Inside you 
lind the swellest lot of hula-hula models that ever put Lucille, 
Hortense oi- Marie to shame. Of course they all "point a moral and 
adorn a tale." But such outlines! The wonder to me is Uolightly 
«'ver came back, liis book reads like the letters your traveled 
friends should send you — but forget. He danced native dances, he 
drank native drinks, he rubbed noses, called "Aloha," and he met 
a black girl three limes at midnight on a dark island road. Three 
timesl Though the girl never moved from the spot at all, and 
he came back to us unscathed, CJod bless himl Too, he attended 
prizelights, the races, called on Governors-general, participated in 
a wedding, and visited t-tevenson's tomb and Samoa home." — 
FELIX SHAY in the FRA ^LA.GAZ1^■E. 

"South Sea Silhouettes tells the story in a classic and graphic 
way of Ilev. ''Golightly" Morrill's trip to the South Sea Islands, and 
tells it in such a way that you see the scenery, and talk to the 
people, and >ou become, as it were, unconsciously the traveler. 
The book is certain to have a large circulation. Everyone should 
read it. It is history, geography and literature combined. It is 
one of the most uniciue, one of the most interesting, and one of 
the most instructive books I have ever read — a masterpiece in its 
way."— WILLIAM SULZEli, EX-GOVERNOK of N. Y. 

"Y'our descriptions of the various places you went to, the 
people you met, their customs, etc., are truly wonderful. So often 
t-ubiects of this nature are made so trite that one cannot actually 
wade through them. Your book is positivelv the one exception 
I have found on the subject of travel." — BERT HUBBARD, SOX of 
ELBERT HUBBARD. 

"I want to tell you how much I have enjoyed your two books. 
"To Hell and Back," and the one on the South Seas. The.v are so 
full of life and written so entertainingly that one feels he is go- 
ing along with you." — REV. WALTER E. BENTLEY, National Sec- 
retary of Actors' Church Alliance. 



"Your books should be suppressed by the Federation of La- 
bor. As an antidote for work they are unequalled. My wife and 
daughters have let me eat cold lunches ever since your books fell 
into their hands — another count against you." — J. C. STIERS, 
County Supt. of Schools, Harrison County. Cadiz, Ohio. 

"Y'our books are like some of the styles one sees on Michigan 
Avenue. Thev certainlv are not troubled with Mow visibility.' " — 
CLIFTON D. GRAY, Editor of CHICAGO STANDARD. 

"South Sea Silhouettes was so interesting that I sat up all 
night to read it." — D WIGHT ELMENDORF, World-traveler and 
Lecturer. 



"Your books should be on every train and news-stand. They 
are 'punchv.' full of keen wit and make mighty fine and easy 
reading.'— 1:i:rT LEVY, Arti.st and Writer. 



"To Hell and Back'' 

My Trip to South America 

By REV. GOLIGHTLY MORRILL 



One of the Funniest and Most Fearless Books of 
Travel Ever Written 



PANORAMA OF 
PANAMA TO 



PERDITION 
PA T AGO N I A 



from 



Unusual Photos — Drawings — 200 Pages 

QUOTED BY PRESS AND MAGAZINES 

SOME OF THE THINGS DESCRIBED: 
The desert cities, high railways and Inca ruins of PERU; the devil dances, 
degradation of Andean Indians and ruins of world's oldest city of BOLIVIA; 
CHILE'S volcanoes, borax lakes, carnage and cruelty; the Straits of Magellan and 
Falkland Islands; the races, gambling and profligacy of Buenos Aires and Monte- 
vidio, the Sodom and Gomorrah of South America; the rubber atrocities and white 
slave markets of BRAZIL; VENEZUELA'S bull fights, revolutions and Pitch Lake; 
the head-hunters, bigotry and backwardness of ECUADOR and COLOMBIA. 

THE FOREWORD 

"Truth wears no fig-leaf. I intend to tell the naked truth about South Amer- 
ica, "^he diplomat dare not, the guest cannot, the business boomer will not, the 
subsidized press and steamship companies do not, but the preacher who pays his 
own bills can afford to tell nothing else." 

A FEW OF THE CHAPTERS: 
An English Eden, Pizarro's Town, A Real Devil, Lima Beans, Bully Sport, 
Curious Cuzco, Religious Rackets, on Lake Titicaca, Pious Orgies, a Door of Hell, A 
Preliistoric Man, A Live Martyr, Flirting in Santiago, Chile Con Carnage, The End 
of the World, Wrecks and Whales, Kissers, Buenos Aires Betting, Scene and Obscene, 
Tango Times, Hell's Queen, On the Amazon, Ballet Beauties, Art Nude and Lewd 
Church Advertising, Dives, White Slaves, Egret Fiends, "Caramba," The Lady and 
the Bull, Hell Colombia! Smugglers, Ship on Fire, Held Up. 

COVER WITH DESIGN IN RED AND BLACK 

A Bargain — $1.00 Postpaid 
Address G. L. MORRILL 

3356 Tenth Avenue South, MinneapoHs, Minnesota 



THE NEW YORK WORLD, one of the 

^\•orlc^s greatest nc\\siTai')crs, devoted a wliolc 
jKi^e to a review and \\rite-up of G. L, 
Morrill's book, "TO HELL AND BACK — 
MY TRIP TO SOUTH AMERICA." It 

said ill jiart: 



"Rev. Golightl^ Morrill is an author of repute, whose 
previous works include "Golightl^ 'Round the Globe" and 
"Upper Cuts." His latest volume, "To Hell and Back,^' 
bound appropriately in black and flaming red, is a VIVA- 
CIOUS disapproval of South America. It is dedicated point- 
blank to the Devil. There is nothing cut and dried, and nothing 
meal})- mouthed about it. Theodore Roosevelt and Elihu Root 
are among the notables who have recently; looked over and 
variously reported upon our sister continent. South America. 
But evidently these distinguished tourists missed their opportunities. 
The Rev. Golightl)) Morrill has now been over the ground. 
Like another Dante he returns to tell the tale — etc., etc." 



This article Mas illustrated uith colored cartoons by 
Gordon R;)ss, i)icturiiiji; Mr. Morrill's adventures and 
experiences in Peru, Chile, Falkland Islands, etc. The 
re\ie\v ende<l l)y ([uoting one hundreil lines from diftVi- 
cnt chapters of the book to show their spice, wit and 
wisdom. 



Golightly *Round the Globe 

By REV. GOLIGHTLY MORRILL 

SPICY BREEZES 



Prom 



Hawaii, Japan, China, Philippines, Java, Burma, 
India, Ceylon, EgyjDt, Italy, Switzerland, Germany 



200 Pages — Photos — Cartoons 



A Good Book for Bad People 



PRESS COMMENT 

'Easy and Good-Humored." — Americmi Review of Reviews. 
■'A Kind of Uncensored Movie." — Chicago Standard. 
'I Am Reading It With Chuckles of Delight."— i?/&eri Hubbard. 
'A Compound of Snuff and Cayenne Pepper." 

— Benjamin Fay Mills. 



SOME OF THE CHAPTERS; 

A Prize Fight. Noah's Ark, Rag Dances, Ship-Bored, Sleepy 
Religion, Geisha Girls, The Yoshiivara, Altogether Baths, 
Making Opium, In Jail, Beastly Benares, My Native Bath, 
Carnal Caves, Captain Cupid, Naughty Naples, Camera Curse, 
Noisome Cologne, The Tipping Habit. 

CLOTH-BOUND, BLUE AND GOLD, $1.00 POSTPAID. 
G. L. MoRitiLL, 3356 10th Ave. S., Minneapolis, Minn. 



ivf n n 


1 

s 


1? f T T 


IRAVELOGUE 


H 1 Id 1^ 

and LECTURES 


WITH OR WITHOUT SLIDES 


AND MOVING PICTURES 


' ' The next best thing to Iraoehng aroun 


d t^ 


e world is to bear G. L. Morrill tell 


about it in his pithy, punchy, rapid-fire 


way. " 


— E. M 


NEWMAN. Noted Globe-Trotter and Lecturer 


— Some Subjects 


to 


Choose From — 


Abraham Lincoln 




Diplomuts 


America's Uncrowned Queen 




Decoration Day 


Art and Christianity 




Down the Rhine 


Alaska 

Argentina 

Australia 




Egypt 

Elbert Hubbard and the Roycroft 


Alhambra and Spanish Bull Fight 




Flying Dutchman 


Along the Mediterranean 




Fakes and Fakirs 


Banff— Laggan — Field — Glacier 




Ferrer, the Masonic Martyr 


Brother Jonathan 




Fiji and Cannibalism 


Belgium and \\'aterloo 




Falkland Islands 


British Honduras 




Florida 


Brazil 




George Washington 


Burma 




Greece 


Bolivia 




Girl Graduates 


Battle of the Books 




Golden Fleece 


Buried Cities 




Germany, Her Music 


Churches of Asia Minor 




Guatemala 


Constantinople 




Hamlet's Home 


Cranks 




Hobbies 


Colorado, Pike's Peak or Bust 




Holv Land on Horseback 


Camping in the Yellowstone 




Holland 


Cuba and Her Future 




Hungarv and Her Heroes 


China 




Hawaii 


Costa Rica 




Hotels Around the \^'orld 


Colombia 




Italy and Her Art 


Chile 




India 


Ceylon 




Immigration 


Cruising with Columbus 




Jerusalem 


Dances Far and Near 




Japan 


Does Death End All ? 




Java 


CON TIN LED ON 


NEXT PAGE 



1 



!■! U li H 1 JL 1^ 

TRAVELOGUES and LECTURES 


WITH OR WITHOUT SLIDES 


AND MOVING PICTURES 




(CONTINUED) 1 


Land of the Midnight Sun 




Staging Thru England 


Lite Among the Russians 




Scottish Scenery 


Life's Music Lesson 




Slum Society 


Life's School 




Sweden the Beautiful 


Lisbon, Old and New 




Spanish Honduras 


Murderous Mexico 




Samoa and Stevenson's Home 


Masonic Shrines 




Salvador 


Morrill in the Alps 




School and Church Bells 


Musical Minister 




Tracks of a Tenderfoot 


My Old Kentuclcy Home 




Temperance 


Marriage 




The Theatre and Her Critics 


New Woman 




The Rockies 


New Zealand 




The Bug Family 


Nicaragua 




Thanksgiving and Living 


Nassau and the Bahamas 




The Lady Nicotine 


Notes of a Pianist— L. M. 


Gott- 


Tasm nia 


schalk (illustrated) 




Tahiti and Tongan Islands 


On the Mississippi 




The God of Books 


Ould Ireland 




The Ten Commandments 


Old World Castles and Cathedrals 


Up-To-Date 


Our Canadian Cousin 




The Melting Pot 


Peru 




The Grand Canyon of Arizona 


Philippines 




Trip to Chinatown 


Paris and La Belle France 




The Scotland of Scott and Burns 


Panama Canal 




Vienna and the Blue Danube 


Porto Rico and the West I 


ndies 


Venezuela 


Pig-Headed People 




War 


Patriotism 




Wales 


Quacks 




What They Did to Mary 


Yellow Journalism 


Yosemite 


Yucatan and Her Ruins 


For I3£ites eLnd Terms, Address | 


O. L. 


yVV O R R I L L 


PASTOR PEOPLE'S CHURCH | 


33S<5 lOth f\\y&. S 


outh, JWi 


nneapoHs, yviJnn. CJ.S.Pl. 1 




o^i'l^'^ 









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those who are hard to please 
those who are hard to fit 
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those who seek real economy. 



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More Than 9.000.000 Perfect Fitting Munsingwear Garments Sold Annually 
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For !.amples of fabrics, style, illustrations, and name of Munsingwear dealer in your town; address 
THE NORTHWESTERN KNITTING COMPANY. MINNEAPOLIS. MINNESOTA, 





// is a matter of 
Service — 



— it does make a 
difference where you 
buy your 

VICTROLA 



The purchasing of your Victrola at Powers is 
but the first step of Powers Victor Service. 
Convenient terms of payment — the perfect ad- 
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— these are but a few of the features of Powers 
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The Victrola Section, Fourth Floor 



POWERS 




RAPID TRANSIT 



AMAPALA, SPANISH HONDURAS 



COMPLIMENTS 

OF THE 

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MINNEAPOLIS 



F. E. ZONNE, Manager. 




NO HOT 
WATER 



"Why, you can't take a bath, 
John — this is wash day" 




A Gas Water Heater 

Solves the Problem 



The Minneapolis Gas Light Co. 



'II?', ■ L 







The 

NEW EDISON 

"The Phonograph with a Soul" 



^ More than three hundred thousand music lovers have 
heard this wonderful new invention in diretft compari- 
son with living artists, and they, as well as the music 
critics of more than three hundred of America's prin- 
cipal newspapers, admit that the keenei^ ear cannot 
distinguish an artisVs voice or instrumental performance 
from the new Edison's Re-Creation thereof. 

^ Let us submit the proof. 

^ Visit our flore and hear a demon^ration of the New 
Eldison. There is no obligation to buy. We juA 
want you to hear and know the difference between 
ordinary talking machine sounds and Re-Created music. 



Edisons from $30 to $6000. 



Write for Catalog 



Minnesota Phonograph Co. 

612 Nicollet Ave., MINNEAPOLIS 




SIVA SIVA DANCERS 



SAMOA 



Witt's Msat Marl(et 



At Powers 



''Vri/ Our TTfeats/ 
there is a difference' 



Minneapolis, Minnesota 




'CLOTHES" QUARTERS 



ACAJUTLA, SALVADOR 




^Ml^M 



SOFTENS^^^^^ --^^^^- -.- -^ SAVES 

THE COMPOUND ^""^ 

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Q Harmless alike on hands or delicate fabrics. R. L. is 
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them Dainty, Fresh and Clean. 

^ R. L. Does Not Shrink Anything. 

fl R. L. Rinses freely. Very effective in Kitchen and 
Laundry. Contains the Essence of the Lemon, the 
Oil of the Cocoanut, and other active cleansing 
agents combined in a soft white powder. 

<r Full directions on package at your grocers. 

ROYAL LEMON PRODUCTS COMPANY 

Minneapolis, St. Paul, - Minnesota 



PILLSBURY'S 

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BEST 



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COMPLIMENTS 



WHITE & McNAUGHT 



JEWELERS 



Diamonds, Watches, Wedding and 
other Gifts. 

506 Nicollet Avenue, Minneapolis 



HOTEL DYCKMAN 

Minneapolis' Finest Hotel 



6th St., Near Nicollet 
325 Rooms All With Private Bath 

Hawaiian and Elizabethan Dining 

Rooms Where Over 1200 Dine 

Every Day 

Home of the Wonderful Electric Pipe Organ 

Rates $1.50 to $5.00 Per Day 

H. J. Tremain 



Chandler's Steamship Office 

501 Marquette Ave., Minneapolis 

STEAMSHIP TICKETS VIA ALL LINES 
TO ALL PARTS OF THE WORLD 

When Planning a Trip by Water, 'Phone 

CHANDLER 

N. W. NICOLLET 1548 T. S. 37784 




iULA-HULA DANCERS. MID-PACIFIC CARNIVAL, HONOLULU 




Everything Worn 



BY THE 



LONDON 

CHICAGO 

DETROIT 

Ml LWAU KEe 

MINNEAPOLIS 

RADISSON HOTEL BUILDING 



Well-dressed Man 



EXCEPT HIS SHOES 



PRODUCTIONS OF 

WELCH, MARGET50N & CO., 
VIRQOE, MIDDLETON & CO., 
ALLEN, SOLLY & CO., 

LLOYD, SMITH & ATREE, 

LONDON, ENG. 
LONDON REPRESENTATIVES, EST. 1779 

CAPPER, SON & CO., Ltd. 

29 REGENT STREET PICCADILLY CIRCUS. W. 

63-64 GRACE CHURCH STREET, E. C. 

EXCLUSIVE AGENTS IN MINNESOTA FOR 

DUNLAP HATS 

"THE NECKWEAR HOUSE OF AMERICA" 



TRI- STATE TELEGRAPH CO. 

"I am glad my globe-trotting friend, Mr. Auto Matic, has come to Minneapolis to 
stay. I met him in Europe, Latin America and the South Seas where he made friends 
and was always popular. 

He understood all languages, was always reliable, made direct connections for ship, 
train and hotel, and introduced me to everyone I wanted to meet. 

In all my conversations he never betrayed a secret, never became contradictory or 
angry, but wasjhandy', quick, and had all his information at his 'ringer tips.' Mr. 
Auto Matic has a round, open face, a bright smile and a plain figure. I am pleased to 
welcome him to the homes of Minneapolis. The family will find him a satisfactory 
companion every day and every way." 

— G. L. MORRILL, Pastor People's Church. 



83 SOUTH TENTH ST. 
The Best of Everything in Flo^vers and Plants 

Prompt attention to phone orders 
MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA 



"A THING OF BEAUTY IS A JOY FOREVER" 

JOHN S. BRADSTREET 
= =& CO.= 

' INTERIOR FURNISHINGS 
AND DECORATIONS 

ESTABLISHED 1876 

327 SOUTH SEVENTH STREET 
Minneapolis, Minnesota : U. S. A. 



The Leamington 



Minneapolis 



The Largest and Most 
Attractive Apartment 
Hotel in the World 



DAVID P. JONES, Pres. 

WALLACE H. DAVIS. Vice-Pres. 

WALLACE C. McWHINNEY, Sec'y & Treas. 

FIRST MORTGAGE LOANS, REAL ESTATE, 
RENTALS AND INSURANCE 

234-238 Mcknight building 




A "WALL" STREET FAMILY 



CARTAGENA, COLOMBIA 

















PEARCE'S 














When 
you gc 
same rr 

$4. 

are re 


Where Fashion Reign 

516 Nicollet 


5 

earce's, 
for the 
:>uscs at 

.86 
Value. 


OC^OMEN'S OUTFITTERJ 

you want a Blouse go to P 
t more style and value 
loney. Our Georgette BK 

86, $6.86 and $9 
markable for Style and 


The next Dress or Coat that you want 
think of Pearce's 









National Candy Co, 

Incorporated 

The Paris Factory 

MANUFACTURING CONFECTIONERS 
A. W. PARIS, Mgr. H. C. PARIS, Asst. Mgr. 

MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA 




IN THE HURRICANE 



VAUVAU, TONGA 



A. E. PAEGEL 

Illlilllilllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll 

Jeweler and Optician 



l^Pearl Biiyers^^ 

Minneapolis, Minnesota 




STIESS-OLSON 
TIRE CO. 



Kelly-Springfield Tires 
3f VULCANIZING * 



1027 HENNEPIN AVENUE 
Minneapolis, Minn. 



CHICACO AVENUE 




LAUNDRY 



^ 
^ 



GEORGE B. ESTERMAN, PROPR. 



2901-2903 Chicago Ave. 

Minneapolis SQ Minnesota 




St. James Hotel 

FI'RBT'ROOF 

Minneapolis, Minnesota 

Offers Rooms with Hot and Cold 
Water, Telephone & Shower Baths 
for 50c., 75c. and $1.00 per Day. 

Absolutely Fireproof — Nothing to burn but 

the Doors. Strictly a temperance Hotel. 

E. J. COLLICK. Mgr. 



William Weisman Company 

Manufacturing Furriers 



F 



INE 

ASHIONABLE 

URS 



^ There is an air of refinement and luxury about our Furs, 
which m^antly attrads the admiration of those who know 
Quahty. 




"He's a wise man who bu^s his Furs from Weisman" 

508 NICOLLET AVENUE 
Minneapolis, Minnesota 



I^ot^l iElgin 

The Home of 

THE THESPIAN 

EIGHTH STREET AND HENNEPIN AVENUE 
MIN\E.A['OLIS. :-: MINNESOTA 




WOMEN VOTING 



WELLINGTON, N. Z. 



WHAT IS HEALTH? 

BY DR. CHARLES LOFFLER 

Minneapolis, Minn., U. S. A. 



If I am not Healthy, Why am I not Healthy? 
How May I Become Healthy? 



These Questions are asked by every civ- 
ilized people, and are becoming more general, 
because ill health is more common every day, 
and the hope of recovery less. 
The Answer was given many years ago by 
Hippocrates, the father of medicine, when he 
said, " As the Blood, so is The Man ; He is 
Just as Weak, Just as Strong." 
Success is measured by the power of endur- 
ance plus proper application. The normal 
individual has normal endurance and normal 
ability to apply his talents. 
Failure is far more common among those who 
are not physically competent, than among the 
healthy, since it takes a strong body to support 
a strong mind. 

Good Health is natural ill health is un- 
natural. Health is the very foundation of suc- 
cess, no matter what the undertaking. He who 
hopes for success, if healthy, should live so as 
to maintain that normal condition, and if not 
in normal health, should first try to re-establish 8th Floor Andrus BIdg., Minneapolis 
a good health standard. 

The Blood is the life of every individual. It gives us every power. Every normal 
man and woman has normal blood One must have a one hundred per cent blood 
standard to expect to be a cr.t hundied pc: cenr individual. Blood examinations, in 
thousands of cases, show that ill health is commonly caused and contiuues by reason of 
blood impairment. 

Scientists recognize the fact that the cure of chronic and progressive disease can only 
be brought about through blood icpa'.r, but have never been able to re-establish a chem- 
ically normal blood, and therefore most such diseases have been classed as incurable. 
My Intravenous Treatment, given directly into the blood stream, brings about the 
necessary chemical changes to establish a normal blood, and theref)y gives the blood its 
normal power of fjuilding, sustaining, of repair and icslstance. The positive beneficial 
results obtained in thousands of cases of chronic and progressive diseases, give incontro- 
vertible evidence that the hope of prevention and cure, of many of the supposed incur- 
able diseases and conditions, is in a chemically normal blood. 




DR. CHARLES LOFFLER, 




BLACK BEAUTIES 



FIJI 



American Tent and Awning Company 



C. M. RAWITZER, Prop. 



Tents and Awnings, 
Paulins, Wagon Covers, 
Horse Covers and Blankets, 
Auto Covers, Water Bags, 
Canvas Aprons, and Bags, 
Sleeping Porch Curtains, 
Canoe and Auto Tents. 



Cotton and Roll Duck, 
Lawn Folding Furniture, 
Cow Covers and Blankets. 
Feed Bags, Oiled Clothing, 
Sails, Flags, Umbrellas, 
Waterproof Covers, 
Lambing Tents. 



TENTS FOR RENT 




18-20 W. 3rd St. 
St. Paul, Minn. 



307-309-311 Wash. 

Ave. N. 
Minneapolis, Minn. 



HERE'S OUR STORY 



We aim to make ours a very superior store. Our name 
is a guarantee of quality and service. Any article bought 
of us must prove satisfactory. If faulty or unsatisfactory 
in any way Ave replace it or refund your money. 

CIRKLER'S DRUG STORE, At Nicollet £^ 6th 

Prescriptions, Toilet Articles. Perfumca and Candies 
MINNEAPOLIS 



''A Man's House is his Castle 



?y 



"confer ■WITH CONFBB." 

HOME SPECIALIST 




TEllEPHONES 

JIC 90 91 92 93 
T. S. 3S36I 



offices: 

50i-z-3- ■<* andrus 

building. 



(idREAL ESTATE. RENTALS, LOANS AND INSURANCEL .._,_, ^^_.,„„ 
06DEN A CONFER MINNEAPOLIS, MINN SAMUELCCDNFER 



''There Is No Place LiJ^e Home 
IF ITS ALL YOUR OWN 



yj 



a 



Confer with Confer'' 

And Cease to Roam 



Rarebit Specialties 

FRESH LOBSTER AND OTHER FOOD DELICACIES 

45-47 South Third Street 

MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA 




FUNERAL PARLORS 



THE EARL UNDERTAKING CO. 



Minneapolis, 



Minnesota 



HEGENER 

Barbers' Supplies 

A Full Line of Carvers, Table Cut- 
lery, Pocket Cutlery and Toilet Arti- 
cles, Manicure Scissors and Tools. 

207 Nicollet Avenue, 
MINNEAPOLIS 





CHURCH ADVERTISING IN RIO 



BRAZIL 



AMOR & CO. 



FUNERAL DIRECTORS 



%- 



Our new home for the conducting of funerals is the culmination 
of yecirs of experience, and the demand of the public for ein estab- 
lishment fitted and furnished for the proper conducting of funerals. 
Our parlors are spacious and embody everything that is superb and 
homelike. The conducting of funercJs from apartment houses is no 
longer necesscuy, as here is to be had all the conveniences of a mod- 
em home and all the additional features for the proper fvandling of 
the last rites over the departed. Our casket salesroom is located on 
the second floor, where we carry a full line of caskets in eJl the latest 
designs. Our prices will be found satisfactory to all classes. 

AUTO HEARSES AND LIMOUSINES. OR HORSE-DRAWN 
HEARSES AND CARRIAGES FURNISHED WHEN DESIRED 

829 2nd Avenue South, -::- Minneapolis, Minn. 

Telephones: T. S. 37-755 N. W. Main 755 



FRANK W. PETERSON 

,^4^ DRUGGIST ^*^ 

MANUFACTURING PHARMACIST 

Wholesale- and Retail 

Locodyne, Citrosal, Glycodyne, Digestonique 

PHONES: T. S. 51240. N. W. SO. 5270 

Cor. Lake St. and Chicago Ave. 
MINNEAPOLIS, MINN. 







THOEN^S 

QUALITY CLOTHES 

FOR 

Men and Young Men ! 

SUITS and QYEBCOATS 

$15 to $35 

FINE FURNISHINGS 

Thoen's Bench Made Shoes 

STETSON HATS 

iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiji^^ 

THOEN BROTHERS 

32-34-36 So. Sixth St. 

Between 
Nicollet and Hennepin 

Minneapolis, Minn. 



WILLIAM LORENZ 

Xrunlc /Wan u fact ure^r 



Phones; Nic. 3775; T. S. 32471 

212 Alarquette Avenue 
MINNEAPOLIS, : MINNESOTA 



If you want 

Hi^h Grade work and 
Right Prices always 



Send Your Clothes Cleaning to 




Master Cleaner and Dyer since 1895 



1028-30 Mary Place 



Minneapolis, 



Minnesota 







NATIVE WEDDING 



TAHITI 



WARREN & COMPANY 

SPECIALTY P^^ "* v^v^rri:.iLi ^^^^ 

116-20 North Seventh Street 

Minneapolis, ^^^jv\? Minnesota 



WE CAN WRITE, COMPILE AND PRINT YOUR 

CATALOG, BOOKLET OR ADVERTISING 

MATTER OF ANY DESCRIPTION 

IN A MANNER THAT 

WILL BRING RESULTS 

ih£ Pioneer Printers 



CATALOG, CALENDAR. AND 
COMMERCIAL PRINTERS 
WHO KNOW HOW 

420-422 Sixth Street South 
MINNEAPOLIS, MINN. 



iati«0 Inb^rtaktttg do. 

No. 10 #null? Stgl|tlj ^trwt 



Minneapolis, 



Minnesota 



PAPER BOXES, ENVELOPES AND 



PRINTING 



a 



HEYWOOD 

Manufacturing Co. 



mo fo mS Third Street North 
MINNEAPOLIS, |> <| MINNESOTA 



The 



Roycroft 

ELBERT HUBBARD II, Editor-in-Chief FELIX SHAY, Editor 

This Magazine for 1 2 months and your 
choice of one of these four books $ 1 .00 



The ROYCROFT is a little whippersnapper that speaks 
right out in Meeting and sa'^gs things, some of them believable; 
some decidedly critical; some pleasantly insidious; some subtly 
intelligent; some errors in judgment^ — all of them interesting 

THE BOOKS ARE: 
ONE DAY (an earl^ novel) ij; Elbert Hubbard 

THE DESERTED VILLAGE— O/Zuer Goldsmith 
THE STORY OF A PASSION— /rwn^ Bachelor 
MOTTO BOOK —Elbert Hubbard 

^ Printed on white deckle-edge book paper, special hand- 
drawn cover, title pages and initials. Printed in two colors. 

^ Select from this List of four the one Book that attracts 
you. Send us your Choice with $1.00. We'll forward the 
Book immediately and The ROYCROFT once a month 
for a year. 

THE ROYCROFTERS, East Aurora, N. Y. 



/'AuT Smvia „ 
tor ADvrRTisms 

Drawings of any subject, 
and for all purposes, made 
by speciali^s. :: Printing 
Plates of every description 
made by experts. :: Photo- 
graphs for all commercial 
purposes made by the most 
able operators in the West. 

BUREAUollNGMVING^ 

MINNEAPOnS •• MINNESOTA 

Omaha- Des MoinesDovenportMilwaukee 



m 



i 



The J. H. Johnson Undertaking Co. 

Formerly of the Johnson -Landis Co. and Vail & Johnson 

E.STABLISIIED 1S07 

1900 HENNEPIN AVENUE, MINNEAPOLIS 




^gggSSE^SES^JSSMaB 



Our New Home was formerly a private residence and this idea will be main- 
tained. WE ARE FULLY EQUIPPED to give greatly Improved Service for 
Public or Private Funerals. Auto Service. 

Telephones: Office, N. W. Kenwood 104 Residence. N. W. Ken. 73 
We are not connected with any other firm of similar name. 



HUSSE Y S^ HATTER 

Makes Old Hats Look New 



16!4 North 7th Street 
Minneapolis, Minnesota 




AN OLD SETTLER 



BOLIVIA 



Bank With a Growing Bank 

Ample capital and surplus, tufit'lht'i' ^vith cflicit'iit 
officers and directors, place this institution in a 
position t(j handle accounts of individuals, firms 
and corporations on a most satisfactory basis. 

You are cordially invited to take up your business 
affairs ^nth the officers of this bank and join the 
constantly increasing nnml)er of depositors who 
are sharing in its personal and efficient service. 

Officers 

W. B. TSCHARNER, President 

L. S. SWENSOX, Vice-Pr(>sident 
M. C. TIFFT, Mce-Prcsident 

WILLIA^I F. OI.SEN, Cashier 

THE BANK OF PERSONAL SERVICE 

Located in the traffic center 
HENNEPIN AVENUE AT SIXTH STREET 

MERCANTILE STATE BANK 



MASONIC TEMPLE PHARMACY 

JACOB JACOBSON, Proprietor 



PRESCRIPTIONS PROMPTLY FILLED 

A full line of Druggist's Sundries, Candies, etc., 
always on hand 

526 Hennepin Avenue (•) Minneapolis, Minnesota 



THE 

DOWNHAM & CAMMETT 

CO. 



Designers and Builders 

Automobile Bodies and Tops 




****»*■ »---W«IW°*S-,5»vl*!*«,,««st^ 



Manufacturers of 

Detachable Winter Tops, 

Repairing, Painting 

and Upholstering 

616-618 Fifth Ave. So. 

Minneapolis, Minnesota 



T. S. 53628 N. W. South 1 793 N. W. Kenwood 550 






Burd P. Johnston & Co. 

FUNERAL DIRECTORS 
and EMBALMERS 



MRS. JOHNSTO.V, LADY ASSISTANT 



PARLORS 

12 WEST LAKE ST. Minneapolis, Minn. 

3020 HENNEPIN AVE. ^ 



Drink Pure 

Glen wood- Ingle wood 

Spring Water 

913 Hennepin Ave., MINNEAPOLIS, MINN. 




U. S. MARINES IN NICARAGUA 



COMPLIMENTS 

OF THE 

MttxopttlxUn 
National lank 

OFFICERS: 

Mr. V. H. Van Sly'.ce President 

Mr. George B. Norris Vice-President 

Mr. J. W. Barton Vice-President 

Mf. C. F. Wyant Cashier 

Mr. J. D. Husbands Assistant Cashier 

Mr. Fred S. Johnson Assistant Cashier 

Mr. M. D. Chandler _ Assistant Cashier 

IHtnnrapnliB, iHtnnrsnta 

MASSOLT BOTTLING CO. 

SOFT DRINKS 

•'Whale Brand" Ginger Ale Mineral Waters 

128 Plymouth Ave., North 
MINNEAPOLIS, :: MINNESOTA 




If Sick, Go To The 

Lawrence Sanatorium 



// is one of the largest and finest private 
Sanatoriums in the Northwest. Occupies 
half-hlock in fine residejtce section of the 
city — has four buildings. Staff and equip- 
ment complete for the best Medical and 
Surgical Service. W. D. LAWRENCE, 
M. D., Proprietor. 

Tel Main 1399 Auto 38 289 
Address 820 E. 17th St„ Minneapolis, Minn. 



N. O. Welander & Co. 






UNDERTAKERS 



.#: 



W 



1530 East Franklin 

Minneapolis, "^^ Minnesota 











CEDAR LAKE ICE 
COMPANY 

WHOLESALE & RETAIL 




1224 Plymouth Building 
MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA 









E. N. YOUNG & CO. 



Fashionable 
Tailors 



416 NICOLLET AVENUE 
MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA 



Going to California 
'I'his Winter? 


Nearly everybody from the Twin Cities going to California 
goes via the through car service of the Chicago GREAT 
Western. 

Why? Because the Chicago GREAT Western's route is 
straight through a country still as interesting and romantic in 
many ways as when first seen by Spanish explorers hundreds 
of years ago. 

Don't forget through sleepers from the Twin Cities direct 
to California and only three days on the way. Call on me for 
information. Our office is very convenient if you're do^\^l- 
town, and when you are at home. 

YOUR TELEPHONE IS HANDY 

CHAS. D, FISHER, A. G. P. A. C. C. JOHNSON, C. P. & T. A. 

MINNEAPOLIS, MINN. 




.,— =i\ ^^=^5-^ 


Chicago i 


^^TTT"?^^/! 






!^1laaiMHHHaisrtar|^ 


^^^L 






Great Western 











Philadelphia & Readin: 

Coal & Iron 

Co. 



READING 

ANTHRACITE 

COAL 



108 LUMBER EXCHANGE 

MINNEAPOLIS, -:- MINNESOTA 



COASTING DOWN THE ANDES 



PERU 









UNDER PERSONAL DIRECTION OF 

James V. Bryson, Inc. 

Minneapolis 
_for 

Minnesota 
Wisconsin 
N. Dakota 
S. Dakota 
Montana 

Write for Special Terms for 

School and Church 

Entertainments 



~ , . \ N. W. East 67 ^j. . , r 11 ^ T. S. 41442 or 41703 

Telephones ^ j 5. 41 1 12 ^*^^^ *^*"' 1 N. W. East 797 

Washburn Undertaking Co. 



LADY ASSISTANT 

W. P. WASHBURN J. A. DONALDSON 

P. THORHAUG 




19 Fifth St. N. E., Minneapolis, Minn. 



Taylor & Watson 

Wall Paper, Painting and Decorating 
45 EIGHTH STREET SOUTH 

Established 1879 

Minneapolis, Minnesota 



15 he 
New Garden Theatre 

THE MINNEAPOLIS MOTION PICTURE PALACE 

Hennepin, Near 7th 

Complete Change of Vrogram 
Tti^i'ce XSJeeKlv 

Showing Variety Photo Plays 

Admission 10c Continuous, 1 1 A.M. to 1 1 P. M. 
BILLY B. WATSON, Manager 



When you go to Movies, attend Theatres 
displa3'ing the 

MOVING 

UNIVERSAL 

PICTURES 

Banners. Watch the trade marks on the 
posters before entering the theatres. :-: 
If 3'ou wish to know more about Uni- 
versal films, call or phone 

The Laemmle Film Service 

717-719 HENNEPIN AVENUE, MINNEAPOLIS 



E. M. Dauphine Company 



FUNERAL DIRECTORS 
^ and EMBALMERS ^ 



MRS. E. M. DAUPHINE, Mgr. 

I N. W. Nic. 1440 
Telephones , Tri-State 32970 

/ Res. N. W. S. 1146 

613 Eighth Avenue South 

Minneapolis, '^"^S^^ Minnesota 



A. M, Smith 

DELICATESSEN 

Finest Imported Olive Oil, 
Cheese, Meat and Fish 

249 Hennepin Avenue 
MINNEAPOLIS 



V E RX A 




iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiy 



MASTER 
GROCERS 



TWinneapolis 

yWinnesota 




THE MILKMAN 



SAN JOSe:, COSTA RICA 



WE SELL 

VELIE BILTWEL SIXES 

9 Models— $1265.00 to $2400.00 

F. O. B. Factory 
" The Name Insures the Quality " 

DIXIE FLYER MOTOR CARS 

A Sturdy car that cannot be beaten 
for the price— $895. F. O. B. Factory 

R. C. Smith Auto Co., Inc. 

1601-3 Hennepin Avenue 

Phone MINNEAPOLIS Phone 

Auto 33969 MINN. N. W. Nic. 603 



J. I. BESSLER 

Locksmithing and 
Umbrella Repairing 

Main 5034 




628 Marquette Minneapolis, Minnesota 




IF YOU ARE A SINNER GO TO YOUR BIBLE 
IF YOU ARE SICK GO TO A DOCTOR 
IF YOUR AUTO ACTS "BAD," OR YOU 
WANT A GOOD MACHINE, GO TO 

PENCE AUTOMOBILE CO 




800-804 HENN. AVE. 
MINNEAPOLIS 



Everett Pianos 

— are to be found in hundreds of our 
Best Minneapolis Homes. 

WHEN \t^ ANTING A PIANO SEE 




ELMER BROOKS 

OF THE 

THE BROOKS PIANO CO. 

Ill So. nth St., 

Minneapolis Minnesota 




SEEING SANTIAGO 



CHILE 



CH. ELLIOTT & CO. 

Funeral Directors and Embalmers 

LADY ASSISTANT 
PHONES: T. S. 6/-/ 65. N. W. DREXEL 3955 

1839 East Lake St., Minneapolis, Minn. 

WM. WELLS & COMPANY 



Manufacturers of : 



Automobile Tops and Slip Linings 

323 Sixth Street South 

MINNEAPOLIS, :: MINNESOTA 

AMERICAN CAFE 

Max Ziemer, Prop. 

242-244 Nicollet Ave. 
MINNEAPOLIS, -:- MINNESOTA 



Hill's 

Dining & Lunch 
Room 



WALDUM & MYERS 

PROPRIETORS 



252-254 Marquette Avenue 
Minneapolis, Minnesota 



The Moorish Room 

WEST HOTEL 

Popular for its Lunches and Table d'Hote Dinners 



Service Excellent — Prices Moderate 
MINNEAPOLIS 



HENNEPIN COUNTY SAVINGS BANK 

Marquette Ave. and Fourth St. 
Resources Over $7,000,000.00 

INVITES BUSINESS AND PERSONAL CHECKING ACCOUNTS 
4% Interest Paid on Savings, Compounded Quarterly 

OFFICERS 

W. H. LEE, President W. F. McLANE, Cashier 

David l'. JONES, Vice-President H. H. B A R BER., Assistant Cashier 

ROGER I. LEE, Assistant Cashier 

OLDEST SAVINGS BANK IN MINNESOTA 



lohe BIJOU 

Minneapolis* Largest Movie Theatre 
^Producing all the best _features 

Special Music ProgroLm for Each 
Production 

Admission 5 Cents — /^o Higher 




MISTRESS OF THE MANSE 



BRITISH HONDURAS 



FRED W. HEINRICHS 

Funeral Director and Embalmer 

LADY ASSISTANT 

Parlors for Funerals Free of Charge 

N. W. Hyland 664— PHONES— Automatic 45 304 

317 Plymouth Avenue, Minneapolis, Minn. 



A. \A/. SCOTT" 



Sanitary Plumbing 

and 

GAS FITTING 



2, 1 :2 SoutH SixtH Stroet 

/Winne-a polls, AAinne-sota 




YEMRS "K.lNO\A/IING HOW/" 

X. V. yVVOREAU oo. 

optical Specialists 

616 Nicollet Avenue, ^ Minneapolis, Minn. 




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Portrait Photographers 

622 Nicollet Avenue 
MINNEAPOLIS :: MINNESOTA 



Drs. STRAND & STRAND 



♦ ♦ 



CHIROPRACTORS 



♦ ♦ 



Graduates of the Famous Palmer School of Chiropractic 

AFFECTIONS of any of the following |^ 
parfs may be caused by nervos Im- 1' 
/^';j^ pinged at the spine by ■ subluxated ■ 
' 4Vj l___ >nR,Ms vertebra. B 




LAK 
i05E 



tmkoat 

ARMS 
"» HEART 

^LUNCS 

•livcr 

" STOMACH 

•PANCPtAS 

'sPLCtN 
KIONCYS 
SMALL BOWCL 
LAI^Ct bOWLL 
gLHITAL ORGANS 
TtUCnS & LXC3 



Chiropractic 

iSPINAL) 

Adjustments 

Will 

Remove the 

Cause of 



S 
E 
A 

S 
E 



PHONES: 
MAIN 5540 

AUTOMATIC 38960 

LADY 
CHIROPRACTOR 



Suite 333-34 Loeb Arcade Bldg. 
MINNEAPOLIS -:-:- MINNESOTA 



Established 1884- 



H. J. SAUNDERS 



MAKER OF 



AWNINGS, HORSE & WAGON COVERS 

FLAGS, WAGON TOPS AND UMBRELLAS 



f 



TENTS 



^ 



Camp Furniture and Wedding Canopies for Rent 
CIRCUS &, SHOW TENTS 



Phones N. W. Main 1277 



T S. 33 178 



908-910 Hennepin Ave., Minneapolis, Minn. 




IN HARD STRAITS 



STRAITS OF MAGELLAN 



JOHN S. ALLEN 



:J E VA/ E L E R: 



Watches, Diamonds, Jewelry, Silverware, Etc. 

Watches Cleaned, $1.25 Main Springs, $1.25 

No. 110 METROPOLITAN BUILDING 

Ground Floor 
Telephone Main 3150 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA 



Gruenewald Buffet 



B. TUCHMAN CO. 



24 and 26 S. 6th St., Minneapolis, Minn. 



GAMBLE & LUDWIG 



The Largest and Most Complete Drug 
and Paint House in the Northwest 



9th and Hennepin, 



Minneapolis, Minn. 



MULTl^ TYPED LETTERS 




LETTER COMPANY 



\»K^irsn-j^APOiTl gfc\ 



Ad, Writing- - -Addressing and Mailing- - - 
Stationery Printed- - -Lithographed- --En- 
graved. Neatly— - Quickly-- -Reasonably 

116 - SO. 4TH ST. - MINNEAPOLIS 



m^ 



F. BUCHSTEIN ^ CO, 

TRUSSES AND BRACES 



113 SOUTH SIXTH STREET 
MINNEAPOLIS, .> MINNESOTA 




Robt. J. Seiberlich 

State Agent 



The Fidelity Mutual 
Life Insurance Co. 



OF PHILADELPHIA 

Phones: T. S. 38 064 N. W. Nic. 1 108 
704-706 Andrus Building, Minneapolis, Minn. 



Compliments of 

IN. L. EPMGER 

UNDERTAKER 

N. W. Main 486 PHONES Aulomatic 37030 



412 Cedar Avenue, 



Minneapolis, Minn. 





N 'MENTAL HOLDQP 



QUIRIGUA, GUATEMALA 



Bhe PALMER 

School of Chiropractic 



'• Chiropractic FOUNTAIN HEAD ■■ DR. B. J. PALMER 

DAVENPORT, IOWA, U. S. A. 

IN ORDER to get an understanding of the very 
remarkable cures he saw effected through 
CHIROPRACTIC, the new science of health. 
Elberl Hubbard investigated the science and took the 
adjustments personally. As a result of his investigation 
he said : " Chiropractic never brings an adverse result- 
its tendency is to make a sick man well, and a well 
man better." 

Mr. Hubbard's opinions are very valuable, inas- 
much as he was the son of a physician and had 
studied seven years with the exp)ectation of following 
in his father's footsteps as an honored, capable 
practitioner of medicine. In a recent book entitled, 
" The New Science," Mr. Hubbard made these in- 
teresting comments about CHIROPRACTIC : 

"The Chiropractor does not pin his faith to any 
single panacea. He simply knows the physical fact that a pressure of bone on nerve brings 
about a condition where the telegraph system fails to act properly. He sees the results 
and his business is to go after the cause. With skillful manipulation of the hand, he 
brings about a right relationship and proper adjustment. He finds the cause and fixes it_ 
The "Chiropractors are not DOCTORS OF MEDICINE, but DOCTORS 
OF HEALTH, and master mechanics of the CentraJ Nervous System of the human 
body; from them we get a science of healing which is adding greatly to the welfare, 
the happiness and the well-being of the world." 

If You are Sick — If You are Worn 

Out or Racked With Disease 

Try CHIROPRACTIC 





SWANSON'S 
''The House of Flowers 

OF MINNEAPOLIS 

• AT • 

Nicollet 



618 



Ave. 618 



Gives unexcelled Flower service to Minne. 
apolis and the Northwest through its unsur. 
passed facilities. Accessible — 

Dal; and Night, Suncla})s and Holi- 
days jor Funeral, Wedding and Social f 
Flowers. Write for free literature. 



■ a ■ a o ■ ■■ anoanooooDonaaa 




KAYSER 


& CO. 


WALL PAPER 


**We Knotty 


Hotef" 


822-24 Hennepin Ave., 


Minneapolis 



" When we Sa\) it's OAK, it's OAK " 

Knaeble & Scherer 

COMPLETE HOME FURNISHERS 
DIRECTORS OF FUNERALS 

Terms to Suit You 

AUTO 45 1 96= PHONES - N. W. HYLAND 196 

511-513-515 Plymouth Avenue 
MINNEAPOLIS, MINN. 



Union Dentins 

McKENNEY DENTAL CO. 

243 NICOLLET AVENUE 
17 Years at This Location 

Oi/er lOO.OOO i=>atlents 

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Best Work at the Lowest Prices 

Satisfaction Guaranteed 

Dentistry in all its Branches 



Force, System and Equipment Up-to-date. 

MINNRAPOLIS, MINNESOTA 




DANCING ABORIGINE WITH BOOMERANG 

LA PEROUSE, AUSTRALIA 



Harry B. Cramer Co. 

♦ ♦ WALLPAPER ♦ ♦ 

Decorating Painting 

89 S. Ninth St. Minneapolis 




EVERY THING ELECTRICAL 
FOR THE HOME 

A FEW SUGGESTIONS 

Washing Machines, Vacuum Cleaners, Ironing 

Machines, Toasters, Perculators, Irons, 

Stoves, Grills, Etc., Etc. 



IF IT IS ELECTRICAL AND NEEDS 
REPAIR WE CAN DO IT RIGHT 

ELECTRIC WIRING 

STERLING ELECTRIC CO 

29-31-33 SOUTH FIFTH STREET 
MINNEAPOLIS 

"Service and Satisfaction with every Transaction" 




Compliments of . . . 



J.Warren Roberts 

FUNERAL DIRECTOR 



913 Marquette Avenue 



Minneapolis, Minn. 



William StrobecJ^ 

Undertaker & Embalmer 

1825 RIVERSIDE AVENUE 

Successor to Fred. E. Lindquist 

Dial 33826 MINNEAPOLIS 

LOUIS NATHANSON CO. 

e) RETAIL CIGARS ^ 



SIX EXCLUSIVE CIGAR STORES 

NICOLLET AT FIFTH 315 S. E. FOURTH ST. 

MARQUETTE & WASHINGTON 501 SECOND AVENUE SOUTH 

LOBBY, PALACE BUILDING 326 HENNEPIN AVENUE 

PIPE REPAIR SHOP ■ Minn^^anrtlw 

IN CONNECTION ivimneapoiis 



Dr. Shegetaro Morikubo 

Representative Chiropractor 

Suite 326 620 Nicollet Avenue 

Minneapolis, Minnesota 



Unexcelled Service N. W. Drex. 1274 

Open Day and Night T. S. 62 074 



LICENSED EMBALMER 

Graduate U. of M. Embalmers Course 

J. E. Bostrom & Company 

FUNERAL DIRECTORS 

Lady Assistant 



Office and Parlors n/f f ■»*• 

3008 27th Ave. So. Minneapolis, Minn. 



C. GERDES 



Groceries & Meats 



1818-1820 Lyndale Avenue So. 

MINNEAPOLIS ^^ MINNESOTA 

Automatic 51144 N. W. Kenwood 1421 






BOX FOR ABANDONED BABIES 



HAVANA, CUBA 



" Burningham's Better Books/^ 

Having succeeded to the General Book Business of Mr. E. 
D. Brooks, I shall endeavor to be true to the traditions of the 
same, both in the quality of service and desirability of the 
books offered. 

Patrons will find besides a Selected Stock of the New Books, 
Imported Books both New and Old, Standard Sets and Single 
Volumes, many of which are quite unusual, in attractive bind- 
ings suitable for the Library and for Presentation. 

H. P. BURNINGHAM. BOOKSELLER & IMPORTER 

93 South Tenth Street, Minneapolis 



St. Marie's Cigar & News Store 

Joseph C. St. Marie, Manager 

NEWSPAPERS AND MAGAZINES 
Newspapers from all Principal Cities in U. S. 

T. S. 32 453 28 S. Fourth Street 

N. W. Nicollet 4376 Near Nicollet 

MINNEAPOLIS, .: MINNESOTA 



THE LEE MORTUARY 

(Funeral Directors) 

Place at your disposal Ideal S/ioic rooms, 

Motor Equipment, A BEAUTIFUL 

CHAPEL, Conscientious Service 

Office Phones: Rea. Phones: 

N.VV. Ken. 4600 NICOLLET AVE. AT N.W. Ken,<724 

Auto3.?707 WEST 15th STREET '^"'o •''■*'*" 

MINNEAPOLIS, :: MINNESOTA 



GERDE AUTO CL 
"MAXWELL" 

AGENCY 

llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllliy^ 

New Garage 
Shop and Storage 



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Satisfactory Service Given All 
Customers at All Times 

^"®*lAufomafic52 676 

912-914 East Lake 
Minneapolis, Minnesota 



Above Them All! 



Energy Gasoline 

and 

Puritan Motor Oils 



BOTH REFINED FROM PURE OIL 



By the 



Pure Oil Company 

Your Home Concern 

Emphatically Independent 
Minneapolis H^ St Paul 

You Can't Lose If You Use 
Energy Gasoline 




CLIMBING CHEOPS 



EGYPT 



R A I N V I L LE 



FURNITURE AND UNDERTAKING CO, 



216 E. HENNEPIN AVENUE 

l^^ll?2S\ 'Sf^^/Tff' Minneapolis 

BOOK SECTION j Booksdlefs 

L. H. WELLS. Manager S ^^^^.^^^^^^ 

powER^s Bookhunters 
BOOK IMPORTERS Bookbindcrs 

Bookfinders 



Minneapolis, Minnesota 



COMPLIMENTS 

BROWNING, KING & CO. 

APPAREL FOR MEN AND BOYS 

NICOLLF.T AT FIFTH MINNEAPOLIS 



Compliments 

HOME TRADE SHOE STORE 

221 Nicollet Ave., Minneapolis 



EDWARD C. BATES, Pres. 



Compliments of 

JOSIAH H. CHASE 



RENTZ BROS. 

Manufacturing Jewelers 

Engravers -Medalists -Gold & Silversmiths 
Cutters of Agates and Precious Stones 

29 So. Fifth Street, Minneapolis 



O MINNEAPOLIS NOW HAS AN OPTICAL ESTABLISHMENT O 




KINDY-KNAPP, inc. 

719 Nicollet Ave., Opposite Dayton's 

Where tlie liighest standards of prac- 
tice arc combined with a perfection 
of service and appointment. This 
concern is under the direct manage- 
ment of Mr. K.J. Knapp, for many 
years associated with one of the lead- 
ing optical establishments on Nico- 
Ictt Avenue. And whose expert 
knowledge and careful attention to 
the minor details has built for him 
an enviable reputation. 

KINDY-KNAPP, Inc. 

optometrists and Opticians 
a KODAKS. FILMS AND SUPPLIES O 



Daily Photo Service! Let Us Develop and Print Your Films 



N. W. Nicollet 7038 



Tri-State 33 929 



A. J. WEISMAN 

JEWELER 

Watches, Diamonds, Solid Gold Jewelry, Cut 
Glass and Silverware 

LOANS ON DIAMONDS. WATCHES. ETC. 

Tel. N. W. Main 3823 



2.ii Niooilet Avenue 



Minneapolis. Minn. 




Nicollet at Seventh 

LUXURIOUS 
FUR COATS 

Fur Sets 
Fur Coatees 
Fur Capes 
Fur Muffs 
Stoles and 
Throws 

Women of Fashion will delight in our elabor- 
ate showing of the new Winter Fur Modes 

Individuality of design and richness of quality are 
the keynotes of our display 

Special prices, typical of the remarkable values 
prevailing throughout the splendid Fur assort- 
ments gathered here 




HOME LIGHTING 



The Effect of Good 
lUumination m the Home 

Have you ever noticed in which home there b the greateac 
cheerfulness? In the home poorly iighied, or in the home 
well lighted? If you have not, let u» tell you. 



Cheerfulness Gomes 

Only to the Home Well Lighted 

la it not worth your careful consideration when we realize 
that a little extra light will bring about the difference 
between gloominess and cheerfulness? And, too, when it 
costs no more to bring about cheerfulness, ii it not worth 
your careful consideration? 
Electric Service has made possible such results. 



THE MINNEAPOLIS GENERAL 
ELECTRIC COMPANY 





SCIJOOL 

ss 



ESTABLISHED 
IN 1877 

627 1st Ave. N, 

Minneapc^Sy 

Minnesota 

We train both young and 
mature men and women for 
excellent business positions. 

Our Catalog will in- 
terest ^ou. AsfiJoriL 

Mard&Gmnian ^ 




I 



■ ^ Your Credit is Good at the New England I p — 
What Our Homefumishing Service Means 




"The new England" Hm always striven to deserve its dU- 
tinctioii as the Largest and Most Progressive Househimisking Elstablish. 
ment in the Nordtwest — a reputation which it is constantly striving to 
strengthen. 

DUT more than (or its size and progressiveness are we jealous of its 
reputation (or accomodating service to its customers — a service of con- 
tinuous helpfulness — helpfulness as to economy in expenditures; helpful- 
ness m general suggestions and advice; helpfulness in encouraging the use 
of Qyality Housefumishings and helpfulness in the extension of the most 
accomodating terms of payment ever inaugurated by any Housefumishing 
Elstabbahment in the United States — all of which is freely at the disposal 
of every "New Elngland" Customer. 



Marquette Avenue, from 5th to 6th Streets 



J 



F 



^ 



J 



i 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



II II 

017 505 275 6 



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